Phantomtale
by TheZakuPowerHour
Summary: Carelessness and youthful bliss had unfortunately brought tragedy upon Kaneki, and even cost him his own life. However, with the seemingly too generous offer of his new partner, Chara, Kaneki soon awakens in the fabled home of the monsters he thought to be myth: The Underground. Together, the two souls will traverse the land to redeem their past. (HIATUS)
1. Greetings partner

_Really don't feel like putting anything here other than hello._

It had been an exhausting day at school, and like always, Hide didn't take any notes on english; he never did pay attention in english class. His excuse was always the same, 'Kaneki, I already speak, like, the bestest english in class!' Well, his excuses were always wrong- grammatically wrong. I knew that he wasn't even paying any attention to me while I was trying to explain to him the differences between 'there' and 'their', so I would have to remember to give him a quick lesson about that in the near future- lessons that would have to wait another day. "Are you ready, Kaneki?!" Hide shouted in excitement as he rushed passed me to toss his backpack against the side of our bunk bed in exchange for the larger hiking backpack he had already prepared.

"I'm pretty excited, yeah." I replied. "Though honestly, I still don't believe that we need to set up camp for this."

"I still say that homework thing is stupid! I mean, who gives homework out on the weekend?!" He complained.

"I'm pretty sure no one liked that idea in class, Hide."

"Whatever…" Hide groaned once more before sliding off the tan backpack to slump down onto the bottom bunk. "So uh… What did you say that we are researching again? Wasn't it like, flowers or plants?"

"Trying using 'we're' next time Hide." I instinctively corrected as I plugged in my phone into the charger I had underneath the desk that we shared. "I told the teacher and mom that we would be doing research on habituation in the woods." I replied solemnly while pulling out a drawer to search through its contents. "You didn't tell anyone else otherwise, right?"

"Nah man, I'm just texting mom and she asked us where we want to be dropped off for." He reassured before returning his attention back to the screen of his phone. "Oh, she said we can only stay there until three o'clock."

"Are you still bringing that enormous titan of a backpack with you?"

"Heck yeah, man! You never know what'll actually happen, you know?"

"Well Hide, we're going to find that out soon." I then smiled upon finding the note pad and pen stashed in the corner of the open drawer- holding it as if I were one of those medieval knights that were commonly depicted in shining armor.

"I know, but… Doesn't it seem like a lot of effort to do some stupid classwork though, Kaneki?"

"It probably is, Hide." I chuckled. "Even so, this goes beyond some elementary school project; we as a society have advanced beyond what was comprehensible back then. I mean really? Monsters? What's next, are they going to say that humans descended from skeletons?" I chuckled at my own sarcasm, while Hide gave a bored expression before turning back to stare back at his phone.

"Nerd." He muttered softly as he shook his head. "By the way, it's probably going to snow, so make sure to wear a coat or something, okay?" I turned my head to give him a quick a nod before making my way to the closet door. Placing my hand down, I paused as I held the doorknob which felt oddly cold- almost if I was touching ice. "Is everything okay, Kaneki?" Hide lazily called from across the room.

"I'm fine." I answered. "Hey uh… Did mom put on the air conditioning before she left?"

" **It's just me, fellow sinner.** " A child's voice answered back. I took a step back as I felt a shiver travel through my entire being. The voice had a very malicious tone to it, despite being calm and having only spoken one sentence.

"Hide! Did you just…" My voice trailed off into an echo as I turned back to see that my entire room went dark. Not as in the lights were turned off, but rather I found myself surrounded in an empty black void. I should have been feeling my heart beating at such a nightmarish sight, but I only felt despair. I hesitantly placed my first two fingers over my carotid artery on my neck, and waited. "Am I… Am I dreaming?" I muttered to myself, to which upon realizing that was the most logical answer, I felt a rush of relief. "Oh… Okay, ummm… I guess I'll just wait until I'm awake up then…" I thought aloud.

" **I can see why you'd think that.** " It was then I had realized that closet door was still in front of me. " **Also, not to spoil anything for you, but if you plan on waiting here… Then it's going to be a while.** "

"Oh… You're still here." I sighed. "Well uh… It's been interesting talking to you… door?"

" **My name's Chara.** " I paused for a moment as I tried to remember if I knew anyone by the name, or perhaps I read it somewhere, but to no avail.

"I can't say I've heard of you before, Chara."

" **That's because this is the first time we're meeting, idiot.** "

"... Well, that was uncalled-"

" **-This isn't a dream.** "

"... This still just seems like a dream." I persisted, to which more silence followed.

" **I can prove this isn't a dream.** "

"How?"

" **Open the door, so that you can see my face.** " Needless to say, that comment came to me as very cryptic and I suddenly became nervous at the thought of what Chara really looked like. " **Come on, we'll get more acquainted and move on from there.** " They must have sensed my hesitation, as I still stood a foot away from the door. Still, I needed to know if I was in a dream or not, and there wasn't exactly a lot of other options I could sort out other than take a blind leap of fate with whoever was behind the door. I took a deep breath in as I turned the knob until a click was audible. As soon as the door was unlocked, they shoved opened the door. I stumbled back due to the force of the door, but when I leaned up to look, the door was gone. In the void, there stood only Chara and I. They looked around my age, still a child, and they wore upon their face an eerie grin with their cheeks colored a rosey pink. They took a moment to analyze me with their eyes for a few moments before taking a step closer to me. " **Greetings, Kaneki; I'm so glad we can meet face to face.** " From underneath their sweater's sleeve, they flashed out a clean kitchen knife as they took another step forward. " **As you might have guessed, being alone for so long is pretty boring. So now that I have you to play with, I'm sure we can come up with a few ideas to enjoy each other's company, don't you think?** " The moment I begun to back away, Chara rushed forward and pinned me to the ground with one hand as they hovered over me- their knife a mere inch away from my neck. " **Kaneki, you're being rude, and I don't really care much for people who are rude to me. So… Are you going to behave yourself now?** " Seeing how struggling against someone who clearly was able to overpower me with ease seemed fruitless, I nodded quickly, to which they seemed to satisfied with. " **Good… Hey, you're pretty smart for a kid too, right?** " I didn't answer immediately, to which was my mistake. They didn't like that. Without hesitation, Chara grabbed raised the knife up before stabbing me in my arm. I didn't hurt, to my surprise, but I watched in horror as a white particles of dust emerged from the open wound. " **Kaneki, what did I just say about being rude?** "

"... I-I'm… I'm sorry... " I reluctantly apologized. "I… I'm academically above average, yes." I whispered.

" **So you understand testing ideas, correct?** "

"... Yes."

" **Well, please humor me for a second, but allow me to suggest an idea I came up with awhile back ago.** " Chara paused for a moment to clear their throat before explaining to me their hypothesis. " **I don't know how long I've been here, but I know how I got here, and how I got here was through a path of bloodshed. Long story short, I created this plane of nothing through the works of my own sins- a fitting hell if that seems like poetic justice, and I've been stuck here since. Now, according to someone I knew, he spoke a lot about a lot about different timelines and all sorts of different universes with all that science fiction-themed theories one would think to be untrue… It's not like you believe in many things yourself, from what I heard earlier.** " Chara chuckled to themselves before leaning in closer to my face. " **Otherwise, you wouldn't be here, wouldn't you?** " I remained silent as I tried to look away, but was forced to stare at them as they forcefully moved my chin to face them. " **So… here's my dilemma: It turns out, I can't truly RESET this timeline without another human soul. That's where you come in, Kaneki…** " Chara then leaned in even closer as I could see their blacken eyes beginning to redden. " **Let me inside your soul, so that I can SAVE the both of us.** " I didn't know how to respond to that request at first. Did souls even exist? However, a sudden thought popped into my head.

"... What about Hide?" Chara backed away for a moment to think, before answering with a simple shrug. "He… He came with me; why isn't he here?"

" **Well, I actually did hear someone else briefly before your door came into existence, and I really didn't get hear much, but it did sound like a conversation perhaps? I don't know, it was really hard to tell to be honest. So umm… No, I don't know, nor do I care right now.** "

"I do." I stated sternly. Upon hearing his, Chara's smile faded into an upset frown as they stared coldly at me.

" **You rather stay in this hell with me forever then?** " I shook my head.

"I never said that, I just want to know if Hide's okay." I begun to speak with more confidence I glared back into those red eyes. Chara stilled had me pinned down, but begun to tap their fingers against the side of my arm for a few minutes in silence.

" **How about this, Kaneki…** " Chara proposed as their smirk returned. " **I'll help you find out more on your friend, Hide. But in return, you allow me inside your soul, from there, I'll be able to live through you and speak to and even through you. However, once you agree on doing this, you won't be the only one in control of your soul anymore. Think of it… as OUR soul from there on.** " With their proposition offered, Chara got off me to stand with their hand out in anticipation. " **What do you say, partner? Together, we'll rewrite this timeline.** " Even then, I knew Chara's offer was vague, and from what they had said about how this plane came into existence, I had suspicion of what their true intentions might be. I would have been overwhelmed with the details about this, but I didn't care. All I had in mind was to find Hide.

"I won't let you hurt anyone, I hope you know that." I stated firmly, to which Chara chuckled at with a shrug. "I'm doing this to find Hide, nothing else."

" **We'll see about that, Kaneki.** " With hesitation, I slowly reached for their hand before taking hold it. Upon grasping their hand, Chara stuck the knife they had through our closed grasp, to which I had to look away from. " **See you REAL soon.** "


	2. Welcome Home

_This is a bit longer, as promised, and I apologize if this chapter seems short, but I promise that I'll upload longer chapters as I progress. I just wanted there to be a little something to read while I write the longer chapters. Toodles, and thank you for those who are reading this._

* * *

I woke up screaming as I held my outstretched hand against where I thought I had been stabbed in my shoulder. Although the pain was extremely sharp, thankfully, it left as soon as it had came. I tried to control my fast paced breathing as I looked down to see that there luckily wasn't any stab wounds; there, however, were what looked like bandages that covered my arm. Feeling my breathing beginning to slow down, I tried to see through the darkness of the bedroom I was in- the bed I was laying on was the first indication to my assumption that this was probably a bedroom at least. It was actually even hard to see, even if it was dark, I shouldn't have had that much trouble adjusting both my eyes to the dark. However, trouble seeing through the dark soon became the least of my concerns as I caught sound of several pairs of footsteps growing louder and louder from outside the room. Out of childish instinct, my first thought was to try to hide myself underneath the covers of the bed, but decided against it due to it being too obvious. I quickly rolled off the bed and hit the floor with a hard thud, which hurt a lot, but I ignored the pain and quickly crawled underneath the bed and waited. As soon as the door swung open, the lights were turned on as I saw two sets of… white furry… feet-like-paws? I was confused, and I was still bothered that I was only seeing out of my right eye, which was both frustrating and frightening to me. Carefully, I quietly rubbed my left eye to find that there had been a padded eyepatch covering my eye the entire time. Although I felt a shudder down my spine at what could have been the reason why I was wearing it, I remained quiet. "Mom, where'd he go?" I made the voice out to be another child's voice, but it certainly wasn't Chara's; in fact, the voice was most definitely belonging to that of a male.

"Oh my God…" The mother's voice, despite being worried, was soft; otherwise had it not seemed to have a hint of panic behind it, I would have gone as far as to describe her voice as gentle. I presumed it was her who ran out of the room, leaving to who I was guessing to be her son standing there- most likely baffled from his mother's reaction.

"Ummm… alright." He said aloud before sighing. "Hey uh… gosh, I wished I knew what to call you..." Asriel muttered as he made his way a mere couple feet away from the head of the bed. "Come on, you couldn't have gone very far…" Asriel commented. I heard the sound of hinges squeaking before another sigh came from him. It was then that I begun to hear the light steps of shoes squeaking against the wooden floor before seeing said pair of black shoes entering through the door. "Oh, hey Frisk." Asriel greeted as he turned to face whoever who standing behind him.

"Where'd he go?" Their voice was like what I remembered Chara's voice sounding in a way, except a bit more lighter in tone and it had a very warm and kind feeling to it, if that makes sense. "Did you put him in the wardrobe?" Frisk asked.

"Agh, Frisk! No!" Asriel retorted in disgust. "We're looking for him, and I don't know where to look, so I started with the nearest thing that I thought someone could stuff a body in." I could hear even more disgust in his tone from saying that. "I don't know Frisk, I'm hoping nothing worse happened to him."

"Let me give it a shot." Frisk replied before beginning to hum to themselves. I held my breath as I saw their light blue shorts and long black socks stretch as they knelt down near the bed. "Peekaboo!" They giggled before leaning down to grab hold of my hand before sliding me out from underneath the bed. I held down a whimper as I tried to avoid eye contact with the child kneeling in front of me, but upon a quick glimpse of their face, I couldn't even tell if their eyes were open either. However, my last plan of defense failed as I felt Frisk grab the sides of my cheeks before beginning to play with them with a smile across their face, which I couldn't help but let out a small throaty laugh. My smile was short lived upon looking to my right to see what Asriel had really looked like. There he stood, dressed in brown pants and a green long sleeved sweater with two yellow stripes across the chest- similar to Frisk's blue and purple sweater- except he wasn't a human child. He resembled what look like an anthropomorphic goat, except he had white fur over his hands, not hooves, and his eyes were very human like. It was unnerving to say the least, but he didn't seem like he wanted to hurt me. However, his eyes did widened in shock as stared at me.

"Er… Hi. My name's Kaneki Ken..." Upon saying this, Frisk placed their hand over mine as they begun to shake my hand.

"I'm Frisk." They simply stated. I expected them to let go after their short introduction, but instead they lifted my hand toward their lips before gently kissing the top of my hand. I felt my expression go blank as I stared back at Frisk, who followed that affectionate display with a wink.

"Frisk, not now, please..." Asriel muttered softly, which by the way Frisk turned to face him with a shocked expression, I assumed that this behavior was odd for him. "I can't believe you're still able stand after what happened to you." Asriel spoke to me.

"... What exactly _did_ happened to me; and not to be rude, but what are you?" He seemed almost caught off guard by the question, but simply chuckled as he rubbed his chin.

"Wow, I guess you did land pretty hard." His soft laughter soon faded into a solemn frown. "I'm… I… I really didn't think you'd survive…" He gasped as he looked away from me. "... I'll get my mom so she can explain what happened." With that said, he brushed past me as he made his way out the bedroom. Midway down the hallway, I heard him shout "Frisk! Help redress his bandages please," before continuing on his way. With the room illuminated, I could see that all the bandages covering most my body were stained a dark red. Luckily, before the image could be burned further into my mind, Frisk placed their hands on my shoulders and motioned me to sit back on the mattress.

"So… I guess the legend about Mt. Ebott was true." I joked, but my attempt in lighting the mood proved fruitless as Frisk ignored my comment. Licking the sleeve of their sweater, Frisk begun to wipe the wet cloth around my mouth for about a minute before stopping. I caught a glimpse at their now bloodied sleeve before they proceeded to wipe it against their pants. "Thank you."

"Of course." Frisk replied before reaching around my chest to carefully unravel the long strip of bandage around my chest. Not wanting to be a burden, I begun to remove some of the bandages myself to help out.

"Frisk, was… was there anyone else with me?" I asked, as I started to believe that Chara was just somehow a figment of my imagination, and that I had only dreamed of them after I caught of glimpse of Frisk from earlier.

"I wouldn't know because Asriel and Toriel- I call her mom though so don't tell her I said that, okay- helped me get better after they found me." Frisk explained as they tossed the large bloodied bandage onto the floor. "But from what I know, you fell after I did... " Their mood darkened as they paused. "Expect you weren't as lucky as I was, from what I heard, and-"

"Hide…" In an instant, my eyes shot wide open as I remembered that he had been

with me. We climbed the mountain, and after he wandered off… "I need to find him." As I tried standing up, Frisk immediately objected with a whine as they tried to keep me on the bed. "Please let go, I need to make sure he's okay!" I shouted in protest, but instead of letting go, Frisk only held on more as they shook their head.

"No! I have to make sure you don't get hurt again, or else Asriel will be sad again!" I was beginning to get annoyed with their efforts to stop me, so I tried shoving them away, but they proved more persistent than I thought. "I said no!" At this point, they were desperate to get a hold on me, and I could feel their fingers prying between the bands of my eyepatch. "Please, just let us help you get better!"

"I… I need to help Hide…" I grunted under my breath before raising my foot up to kick Frisk off me. They let out a cry as they hit the wall with a loud thud. Getting up, I prepared myself for more of Frisk's determined efforts to keep me in the room, but instead what I saw made me feel sick to my stomach. On the floor, Frisk sat crying in fear as they cowered before me. "I'm… I'm so sorry…" I tried to get closer to comfort them, but they instead scattered to their feet before rushing out of the room. I wanted to apologize, I really did, but I tried to justify to myself that I wasn't in the wrong. Finding Hide was more important, right?

 **"How sweet of you."** I felt tears beginning to weld up in my eyes at this point, and the familiar voice I heard mocking me only made things worse. " _ **What? Did you really think I'd forget about our partnership?"**_

"Where's Hide?!" I screamed as I held the sides of my face, to which I then realized that I could see my left hand- the same side on which my eye was covered. To be honest, I didn't care about that at the moment. "Help me find him!"

 _ **'Well, well, well, looks like someone thinks they're in control here, now does it?'**_ Chara chuckled, and as they continued, their mocking laughs grew louder and louder as I watched in disbelief at the image appearing before me. There they stood, with that same sadistic smile standing over me as shivered on my knees. " _ **I'll take you there, but you'll have to do something for it first."**_

"What?!" Looking up, I could see their wide grind become more and more sly as their red pupils expressed a somewhat playful nature to them.

 _ **"Beg."**_ I didn't know how to respond at first, but I didn't need to as I watched Chara put their foot out in front of me. " _ **I said beg."**_ I could still feel my tears flowing down my cheeks as I reluctantly leaned in closer to their black shoe. Doing what I could imagine to suffice this sick request, I held their calf as I rested my forehead against their toes. I felt humiliated to say the least, and after feeling their hand grasp my chin, they cocked my head up to look at them in the eyes. " _ **God, you're so pathetic…**_ " Chara chuckled once more before letting go. " _ **Hurry up and stand up while you have SOME dignity left.**_ " I couldn't stand up though, despite my efforts, and instead I only broke down and gave in to the overwhelming dread I had in me. " _ **... Dear God, what happened to that confidence you had the last time we met?**_ " When I didn't reply, I felt them grasp my chin again, but this time it was slightly more gentle. Their smile was gone, and instead they gave me annoyed expression- an almost pitiful one at that. " _ **Jeez, you're a wreck… I'll tell you what: how about I take over for a bit? You can just sit back and relax as you watch me show you how it's done.**_ " With their other hand, they held it out in front of me. I wanted to find Hide, and even though I felt lost in my hopelessness and despair, I felt something inside me that allowed me to have the strength to reach out my hand toward them. What I felt, was not doubt DETERMINATION.

* * *

 **I couldn't believe what a crybaby he turned out to be, but I didn't really care that much to be honest. He was easy to manipulate, and that was good enough for me. I took a moment to observe around what used to be Asriel's room as I could almost feel a upbeat reminiscing joy emerge deep inside of me from all the art I drew in this room. I probably should have learned to draw better before I ate those flowers and died. Whatever. "** _Please…_ **" Oh god, I didn't expect him to be able to have the same abilities as I did. "** _Take me to where we fell._ **"**

" **Yeah, just, you know, hold on real quick." I reassured aloud as I put my foot out, only to stumble; it had been a while since I've last had a body after all. "Let me get used to this body first, okay?"**

" _Please hurry._ **"**

" **God! I just said I would, okay?!" Jeez, the nerve of some people. Using the side of the wall, I was able to utilize it to aid me in my efforts in learning how to walk again- which didn't take long, of course. Going off my memory, I made a quick pace over to where the kitchen was, and immediately begun to search the drawers.**

" _What are you doing?!_ **"**

" **Making myself a sandwich, what else?" I answered sarcastically, "I'm getting something to defend myself with, idiot. See?" I asked as I brought the side of the knife close to my left eye, where I could see in the reflection my good old darken eye with a red pupil.**

" _I can't see it._ **" What did that mean? I pondered about this for a moment, and tried moving it over to my other eye. "** _A knife?! Why do you need that?! We're just going to find where Hide and I fell down, right?!_ _ **" Kaneki asked in a panicked tone.**_

" **You've obviously haven't seen what's in the ruins, have you?" I, of course, didn't expect him to… Which I found sort of weird. Shouldn't we have met Flowey? Then Toriel would have saved me and gave me this stupid tutorial on how killing is wrong and whatever. Then again, I've always used Frisk, so I'm not sure what to expect by partnering up with someone else, but I'm more than sure that those monsters were more than willing to attack me. Even so, how did Frisk survive that fall without me? Whatever, those were questions that would be answered in all due time; that, or no longer become relevant to me.**

" _Isn't a knife a bit excessive? According to the legend, humans are far more powerful._ **" Kaneki tried to reason with me. How cute.**

" **Look, you let me worry about getting there, okay?" A moment of silence passed without hearing an answer from him, which was really irking me at this point. "I'll take that as a 'Yes Chara! Thank you for taking the time to help me with some stupid trivial pursuit!', how about something along the lines of that?"**

" _Hide isn't trivial to me; he's family._ **" He finally replied, and sternly too I might add. "** _I know you probably don't care about him, but… It would mean a lot to me if you atleast tried._ **" I… I actually didn't know exactly how to respond to that at first.**

" **... I said I would, Kaneki, okay?" I finally muttered in response after a moment of silence passed. I could have sworn I heard a sigh of relief coming from him upon me saying that.**

" _Thank you, Chara._ **"**

* * *

 _Any suggestions? Spaghetti recipes? Please help, I'm hungry and the stove is too stronk._


	3. Mozaik Role

_Really talk here, bubby. At first, I wanted this to be a story based off a power struggle between Kaneki and Chara, where each would fight for control of their corporal form. But, after trying that, it seemed very... Well, I didn't like the idea of writing an over anguished chapter. I know this chapter isn't SUPER long, but I felt as though it's needed. I didn't want to write about their lives falling down into more and more despair, but rather, I now want to write about a story of bitter sweetness rather than just pain. I'm getting a new cover done in the meantime, on where Kaneki doesn't have to wear his eyepatch to blind Chara, and where Chara no longer needs a knife. Also, new clothes. Yay._

* * *

 **Exiting the kitchen, I stood near the armrest of Toriel's chair. "** _What are you doing? I thought you were ready to go._ **" Kaneki pestered in an annoyed tone, to which I rolled my eyes at.**

 **"How do you even know he'll be there?" It hadn't even come to my attention, and probably neither his, but we were really just going off an assumption based on nothing. "I mean, do you even remember falling with your friend?"**

 **"** _... I… I remeber me losing track of him, then…_ **"**

 **"Then you probably went looking after him, right?" Not wanting to argue standing up, I leapt over the armrest and onto the tan living room chair that Toriel would usually spend most her time reading on. "And from the way you spoke down to him, I'm guessing you thought he was stupid enough to get lost and hurt himself, right?"**

 **"** _I don't think he's stupid._ **"** **Kaneki protested in his defense, to which I couldn't help but chuckle at.**

 **"Oh? You seemed pretty satisfied with manipulating him into lying for you, and to his own mom nonetheless." Perhaps I was enjoying myself a little too much, but I did feel the need to correct him afterall. I might have been seen as a cruel monster by some, and even I admitted that betraying the trust of those foolish enough to believe that I could have changed gave me a certain rush before in the past, but there was never an instance back then where I deluded myself into believing something I knew wasn't true. "Admit it, Kaneki, you're in denial that Hide knew better than to follow you, a brainy show off who just HAD to prove himself important to others in order to feel important, into the mouth of hell." I could tell that this was bothering him, by the low growl he made.**

 **"** _You're wrong._ _Even if he believed the story to be true, or for argument's sake, let's say he knew that the legend of the monsters being in the Underground was true... Hide wouldn't abandon me, so why should I abandon him?_ **" In all honesty, what he said was rather noble and quite loyal of him, which made me think about Asriel and I. Sure, we had fun together, and his family had come to accept me as their own, but earlier… After that eyepatch or whatever fell off- when I got to see through his eye...**

 **"Kaneki, who… who were you talking to before Frisk?"**

 **"** _Why do you need to know?_ **" It almost seemed like he was taking revenge. How typical. "** _I think you actually might be right, but for the wrong reason- about Hide not meeting the same fate as me, I mean._ **" Grinding the back of my teeth, I sunk my fingers deep into the arms of the couch as I tried to keep calm.**

 **"This isn't the time for you to start making stuff up, now tell me who else was with Frisk."**

 **"** _You like to change the subject when you're upset, I'm starting to realize that now._ _You earlier told me that you heard a conversation you couldn't understand before seeing the door that led you to me. If Hide had fallen, surely Toriel and Asriel would have found him by-_ **"**

 **"-Asriel's here then..." I felt my smile creep back across my face as my eyes widened in joy. I hoped off the chair with an extra skip in my step as I made my toward the first room of the house that lead outside. Just when I thought my luck couldn't get any better, who else but my own brother froze to the spot a mere few feet from me. "Greetings, brother; it's been awhile, hasn't it?" I was expecting him to first recognize my voice, perhaps than cower from me like he used to, but instead, he gave me a confused look.**

 **"**... Kaneki? **" He took a step back as I made my way closer to him with the knife gripped tight in my hand. "** What are you… Hey, um, keep the knife in the kitchen please; you might hurt someone... **"**

 **"... Asriel it's me." I smiled as I took another step forward. However, he unexpectedly advanced toward me in a mild manner before pulling the knife out of my hand. It wasn't like he had to force it out of my hand, no, it was more like he wasn't afraid of me.**

 **"** I know it's you, Kaneki, and don't worry, I'll ask mom if she'll let you help prepare dinner tonight, since you seem so eager to use this thing." **He chuckled to himself as he moved past me. I was dumbfounded, and soon, step by step, I found myself following him to the kitchen. "** Also, what's up with your eye, it's all gunky with black stuff. **" He questioned in a concerned tone. This wasn't making sense, how could he not remember me? We died together, how could he have…**

 **"Asriel… How… How are you alive?" He gave me another look of confusion before trying to brush it off with a chuckle.**

 **"** Gosh... don't tell me you don't know about the bird and the bees, Kaneki!" **If I was still smiling, it would have been that moment that I would have stopped smiling for sure.**

 **"Don't… Don't you remember me? Y-You… You're my brother!" Standing before me, I could see him stare at me in shock, and before I knew it he leaned in to pull me into a hug. "I… I thought we were a family…"**

 **"** Kaneki, if you wanted to be apart of this family… All you had to do was ask. **" There I stood in his familiar warm embrace, except it wasn't for me this time. If I or Kaneki still had a beating heart, I'm sure that the pain that I would have felt would have been from a broken one. It was then I could feel a warm sensation travel down my cold left cheek, a feeling that too was familiar. Unfortunately, all the times I did cry, it was when I was on the surface. "** Even if you are a little weird. **"**

 **"** Asriel, try using 'you're' next time. **"** **Although I knew it wasn't me who spoke those words from my mouth, I didn't care. All I felt was a crippling pain that was only mocked by the genuine compassion Asriel was giving to who he thought was Kaneki. "** I… Thank you… I'm sorry if I caused any trouble. **" Despite the hug not being for me necessarily, I still didn't want it to end, even if it was hurting me. So when Asriel broke the physical bond between us, I could only stare through the tears I had in my left eye, to which I raised my hand to wipe. "** I apologize, I'm… I'm really happy is all. **"**

 **"** Don't worry about, umm… brother. **" There I stood, a mere three feet away from who I once thought as to be my brother. I… I needed time to think.**

* * *

Had it not been for Asriel standing so close to me, I would have sworn that I would've fallen immediately after taking back control. The odd thing was that I didn't have to fight for it. In fact, it seemed to me that Chara wanted me to take control. I didn't blame them. "Asriel, can you help me?" He almost seemed surprised from me speaking; I suppose hearing several different voices coming from the same person could be a little strange, but he did try his best to ignore the change of voice, I'm sure.

"Sure! And uh… You're eye got better… sort of." He commented. "How can I help?" Asriel asked in an eager tone, which I couldn't help but smile at.

"Earlier, when you told Frisk to redress my bandages…" I had to pause in order to allow myself to admit to the horrible thing I did to them. What was worse was now he just had considered me a potential family member. "... I… I lost control of myself, and I… I kicked them against the wall and… I'm sorry, I know it doesn't excuse my actions, but I had thought that my friend was still at the place that you guys found me." I had expect him to be disgusted, and perhaps even regretful for offering me to be apart of his family. But instead, his smile was still there, and he actually looked happy to hear me admitting to this. "I know you and your mom would have saved him too."

"Hey… don't worry about... I know Frisk will forgive you, if they haven't already." Asriel reassured with a pat on my shoulder. "Come on, let's get you covered first, bro." He let out a soft chuckle as he pointed down with a finger. Due to recent- might I add even emotional- events, I had forgotten that neither Chara nor I had remembered to put on clothes. "No point in freaking Frisk out… Yeah, I think your clothes are dried by now, so let me go grab them from outside; just sit tight real quick." With that said, Asriel turned to exit, but not before giving me one last look. "You know… It's funny."

"What is?" I asked, curious to what he meant. Perhaps he was referring to the situation as a whole? However, Asriel instead brushed off it with a shrug.

"Nothing… I'll be right back, Kaneki."

"Okay, thank you." I thanked Asriel be he continued on his way outside, but not before turning around one more time to close the front door. As soon as the door shut, I fell to my knees with my hands outstretched to the floor to catch myself. Chara must have been holding back, because as soon as I landed, I felt warm tears showering down from the left side of my cheek. "Chara… What's wrong?"

"… _**Why…**_ " A moment of silence passed, and for a moment, I thought they, just like Asriel had done moments ago, were just going to brush it off. Boy, was I wrong. " _ **... Why doesn't he remember me!?**_ " Their answer came out… louder than I had anticipated. Extremely painful to hear actually, and with their voice projecting inside my head rather than through my ears, I instead reached up to hold my forehead in an attempt to comfort myself, rather than my ears. " _ **We were family!**_ " Chara screamed through their fits of sobbing. It was shocking to hear what I thought to be an unshakeable person being able to sound so heartbroken.

"Chara, I'm sorry-"

" _ **\- ' .**_ " The way they said that... unnerved me. The pain in my head was beginning to ease, and their distorted voice begun to ease back as their sobbing softened. Their murmurs of woe came to a halt as soon as the door cracked open.

"Hey bro, I'm back!" Asriel announced as he stepped in through the door. With him, he carried my clothes, folded neatly nonetheless. "... Hey, are you okay?" Asriel asked, putting down the clothes to the side before he kneeling down infront of me. He instantly flinched when I lifted my head to face him though. "Oh man, your eye…" Asriel muttered underneath his breath, but quickly shook it off as he put on a smile. "Well… Mom said I shouldn't do healing magic without her… But hey, that doesn't look too bad! Don't worry Kaneki, I'll have you fixed in a sec!" He cheerfully announced as he got up.

"What's wrong with my eye?"

"Nothing too bad, it's just that the white part of your eye, the uh…"

"The sclera?" I finished for him. Sitting down in a cross legged position, I took one hand to open my eyelid while with the other I pointed toward what felt like my sclera. "It's the white part of the eye."

"That's the thing though; your left eye isn't white, it's black and red." I then begun to wonder if that was the reason why I had the eyepatch on in the first place, although before he left outside to get my clothes, he did mention that my eye did look better. That was before Chara started to cry and after I took control though. "Jeez, it's still watering up pretty bad."

"Asriel, I don't think that-"

" _ **Hurt him.**_ " I didn't know why I was starting to become… angry after hearing Chara spoke those two words to me. I then felt my hands beginning to twitch, and he was quick to take notice.

"Is… Is there something wrong with your hand?" Not wanting to frighten him, I shook my head.

"No, I'm fine, it's just a little-"

" _ **I said hurt him.**_ "

"No…" I tried my best to whisper my response to Chara, but considering how I was already the subject of concern for Asriel, I could tell that he had heard me talking- probably to who he thought was myself. "Asriel, I'm fine."

"Ka-Kaneki... Your eye, it's dripping black stuff again…" He reached out with an index finger outstretched toward my cheek, to which I smacked away in annoyance. Asriel stepped back as he held on to the hand he tried to use to wipe away my tears. "I'm… I'm sorry."

"No! I didn't mean to do that!"

" _ **He hurt me.**_ "

"Asriel! I'm sorry! I'm not myself, I-" When I stood up in my efforts to comfort him, he flinched away as well as moved back away from me. Another wave of anger washed over me, and I moved forward to shove him against the wall. Hard. "I said I was sorry, isn't that good enough?!" I could tell he was really scared now, as he coward against the wall near the door. As soon I saw his hand slowly creeping for the doorknob, I took hold of his wrist before twisting his arm behind his back to shove him once again against the wall.

"Kaneki! P-Please stop!"

"You're… You're **…** You're just like Hide!" I shouted in his ear, which caused him to whimper. "Why can't you just listen to me, Hide?! **You** **idiot!** I said not to look for a place to set up a tent! But no! **You're** too stupid and you just had to make my research into some idiotic camping trip! Even when I gave in to your **childish** pursuits, you went **and** left the **stupid** tent just so you can go and explore **!** **Why couldn't you just listen to me?! You couldn't have even done that, could you?!** It took you so long to get back, and **I was worried sick** **about** you, **and** all you had to say was sorry… No… No **you didn't even apologize for leaving me! You made me hurt you, and then left me to make me feel like the bane of all existence, didn't you?!** And you know what, **you** just **ended up dying!** Just because you couldn't listen to me for once! What was I supposed to tell mom?! That I shoved her real kid into Mt. Ebott by accident?! **I couldn't go back! What do you want from me** , Hide **?!** **Just tell me!** " I… I couldn't believe what had just came out of my mouth. I knew… I knew that what I said wasn't Chara alone. What I just said, no, what I just did to Asriel was cruel. During my little speech, I had forgotten that Asriel was even there and I must have let go. Looking down at him sobbing as he shivered in a curled up ball was… painful.

" **Asriel…** " I… **Chara** … No... **We** whispered to ourselves as we knelt down. We didn't stay kneeling down for long though, instead we wrapped our arms around his torso into a hug. **"** I'm sorry Asriel… **"** We had no right to ask for forgiveness, but, we owed an apology to our brother. " **We've… we've both done a lot of horrible things in our past before…** " His crying was beginning to soften, which brought a certain comfort that neither of us deserved. **"** Hurting you… Hurting Frisk… **Hurting those we have no right to exist with...** even if we've only known you and your family for only a little bit… **You have such a lovely family, one that we don't deserve to be apart of.** " We had a hard time saying that without breaking down into tears ourselves, but crying out of self pity after what we did… No, we deserved hell instead. We should have stayed in that dark void. We leaned in to kiss his ear before getting up to stand up before feeling both Kaneki and Chara beginning to separate back into their separate personas. Kaneki and Chara: two damned souls sharing one corporal form together. How ugly we were.

* * *

"It was nice meeting you, Asriel… Chara was glad to see you too, despite us acting the way we did." I faked a smile as I knelt down to pick up my clothes. "... Goodbye." I didn't even have time to even grab the handle though, instead I felt the warm embrace of Asriel as he wrapped his arms around my chest before burying his head into my shoulder.

"Don't go." He whispered softly. That's all he had to say to get both Chara and I to break down. I could feel both myself and Chara's whimpers quickly escalated into a harsh bawling. I wasn't without a shoulder to rest my head on for long, before I knew it, I felt another pair of arms wrap themselves around me from the opposite side of where Asriel stood.

"Please don't be sad, Kaneki." It was Frisk, and as both Chara and I continued to sob furiously, Frisk begun to shush us in their sweet loving voice as they gently rubbed the back of my head. "You too, Chara, you don't have to be sad or alone anymore- neither of you do." Frisk reassured in a compassionate tone. "You don't have to worry, family always forgives will always love each other no matter what... Even if we do sometimes act crazy."

"Yeah…" Asriel murmured, "And you are pretty crazy... Besides, you were heading out the wrong door." Chara and I had held back tears like the ones we let loose for far too long. No alligator tears of anger or childish attitude, no false sorrows to deceive others into tricking them. Rather, we shed genuine tears. Not out of hatred nor despair however, but rather joy. Truth be told, I couldn't recall myself ever crying in response to ever feeling blessed, and I'm sure Chara couldn't remember themselves. And if we had experienced such a blissful memory, then it had been far too long. The feeling of being loved, something both Chara and I had longed for, was enough to make us forget who we were, even if we both knew deep down that eventually we'd be reminded time after time of our own sinful past. But… Despite any sin, isn't there a way to redeem oneself? True that there's no changing what we did, and we'd never truly forget about the ones we've hurt and the ones who've hurt us. We're both just children after all. But even knowing this, I couldn't help but crack a smile after hearing Asriel brightening up the mood with that comment, and I knew Chara had appreciated it too. "... I don't want to ruin the mood or anything… But bro, seriously, put on your clothes."

"It's okay, Asriel." Frisk assured with a small laugh. "I don't mind at all." So there we stood, the four of us, all together as loving siblings. Sure, I'd have to introduce Chara a bit more, and I'm more than positive that they'll want to introduce themselves with their own voice as well, but nonetheless, we were a family now.

* * *

 _Next chapter will be a bit more adventurous as they, gasp, leave the house. Unlike some of us, who pretty much seclude themselves in their home. And for those wondering, if there are any lol, Chara speaks in bold, while Kaneki and everyone else speaks normally. When Kaneki and Chara speak to each other through their mind, the dialogue will be italic. Don't worry, Goat Mama will be in the next chapter, along with a surprise. Next time, on Dragonball Z, Kaneki and Chara explore the ruins._


	4. Stiches

_I love being Undertale trash._

* * *

As promised by Asriel, Chara and I were allowed to be in charge of preparing dinner- not on our own, of course. He had told us that Toriel, who I suppose was now our mother as too, although it felt weird to say that aloud, considering how I had no idea how she looked. Chara had told me that she pretty much looked like a taller female version of Asriel, except she had small horns. As instructed, Chara and I waited patiently for Asriel to get Toriel. We waited, and that's when minutes begun to turn to hours. Even Frisk, who was sitting in the next room at the dining table, had fallen asleep face down on their white plate. "Is it usually like this?" We were at this point bored, and even Chara had earlier insisted that I'd play with the knife for fun, to which I politely declined, which left them slightly bitter.

" _ **Not that I recall.**_ " Chara replied. " _ **Wait… No, that I think about it, she does take her time shopping. Hey uh, don't you like to read?**_ "

"I was actually meaning to ask you that. I noticed her collection of books; do you know what sort of material she has?"

" _ **I don't know, I never bothered to check. But , she does have this book about snail facts, if you're into that kind of thing.**_ "

"Oh… I'm alright, but thank you."

" _ **Sure...**_ " With the awkward silence settling between us. we continued to wait; the only sound notable was Frisk's snoring. " _ **So… Are you fond of chocolate?**_ "

"I'm more of a coffee sort of person." I replied, but not wanting to be rude, I followed with a nod. "But yes, I do occasionally eat sweets."

" _ **Then I have a surprise for you! Check inside the fridge, my good sir.**_ " Not having anything else better to do, I indulged Chara's request, and made my way to the fridge. Inside was nothing more than groceries and snails. A lot of snails actually. " _ **Impossible! I had a bar of chocolate I was saving for later!**_ _**Whoever stole my chocolate bar shall know no other pain greater than what we'll bestow down upon them! Kaneki, we shall tear into their flesh and spread salt upon their-**_ "

"You and I aren't from here." I interrupted. "So yes, I would presume you never put a chocolate bar, or anything for that matter, in that particular fridge."

" _ **... That would make sense.**_ " Chara muttered before sighing. " _ **Ugh… Where are they? They should be back by now, it's like the Ruins are that big.**_ "

"I'm beginning to worry about them myself…Earlier, you said that the Ruins were a dangerous place, right?"

" _ **For humans, yes.**_ "

"Then, if that's the case, they should be fine, right?"

" _ **Obviously… Why, what are you getting at?**_ "

"It's been more than an hour at least, and if they're familiar with this area, then surely they would have come back by now." I reasoned. "I don't want to make assumptions just yet, but I do believe that it would be our best interest to look for them."

" _ **I agree, but what about Frisk?**_ " Chara questioned.

"We'll bring them along." I thought the answer was obvious. "Why, is there something else you'd rather do?"

" _ **... It's not like we have a lot of options here: it's either leave them or bring them. It's just… Frisk might get in our way.**_ _ **We'll… We'll just have to balance our efforts between searching for Asriel and Toriel AND ensuring Frisk's safety.**_ " Although I knew they were right, I still had to question Chara's intention. I understand that they've improved greatly in such little time, but… still.

"Chara, why is it you're saying that the Ruins are exclusively dangerous for humans?"

" _ **It's not just the Ruins, Kaneki, it's the entire Underground.**_ " Chara corrected. " _ **I can't be positive, considering how Asriel's still alive, I'm not sure if Asgore still harbors resentment for humanity, but if monsters are still in the Underground, than that must mean that the barrier between here and the surface is still active… I don't know, Kaneki, just trust me on this.**_ " Back when I didn't believe that the story was true, I always did question a lot about the story, such as why the monsters never just left the Underground back the way they came. " _ **Just go wake up Frisk, who knows, maybe they'll know where they are.**_ "

"Understood." Outside the kitchen, I watched Frisk drool in their sleep as they lightly snored, which was pretty adorable, and made me reluctant to disturb their sleep, but even so, placed my hand on the arm to softly shake them awake. However, Frisk instead pulled my forearm in closer to snuggle their head against it as they continued to sleep. "Oh… Um... Frisk?"

" _ **Allow me.**_ " **Kaneki was taking too long. Frisk may be gentle soul, and Kaneki was definitely a pushover, but I wasn't. I clamped my free hand over their mouth and nose, and it take long for them to begin stirring from their slumber. As soon as I knew they were awake, I let go. As they sat there gasping for air, I used the dusty-rose colored scarf around my neck to wipe off the saliva and whatever germs they had.**

"... Kaneki? **"** **Frisk, who had finally caught their breath, asked as they turned to face me. It was hard to tell if their eyes were opened or not.**

" **It's Chara."**

"Oh… Hi Chara. **"**

" **Don't sound too excited there." I muttered.**

"I wasn't trying to be mean, sorry. **" They apologized.** **"** It's just that it's hard to tell if it's you or Kaneki speaking sometimes. **"**

" **Whatever, anyways, it's been over an hour, and neither Asriel nor Toriel has come back yet." Although Frisk seemed surprised at this, they didn't seemed worried at all, which was unexpected of them.**

"That's weird… Let me just call them real quick. **" Frisk replied before reaching down in their pocket.**

" _They have cell phones here?!_ **" Kaneki asked in disbelief. "** _Why didn't you tell me earlier?! We could have called them a while ago!_ **"**

" **It's not my fault, Kaneki! I barely know how to work one!" In my defense, back when I was alive, we didn't have the technology that they had now; we wrote our messages with a pen and paper, but then again, it wasn't like I had any friends to write to either.**

"Is Kaneki there? **" Frisk asked as they held the device in their hands.**

" **He is." I answered back.**

"Hi Kaneki! **"**

"Hello. **" I hadn't expected him to answer, but I could tell that Frisk enjoyed hearing his voice. "** Please Frisk, can you call them? I'm starting to worry about them. **"**

"Even Chara's worried? **" I almost felt insulted by that, and Kaneki just had laugh. Then again, I didn't think I've heard him laugh before; it was a pleasant change to hear him somewhat happy.**

"Yes, especially Chara. **"** **Frisk giggled at that a little too hard.**

" **Enough! Just call them!" Frisk's smile faded quickly, and then gave me an annoyed look before sighing to themselves softly. Listening carefully, I could hear the phone ringing through the speaker of the cell phone. After a few minutes, Frisk pressed a button on the device to end the dialtone. They didn't seem too shaken up about it, but they did seemed slightly anxious. "Who'd you try calling?"**

"Mom… But, she has a hard time answering her phone, so I'll just call Asriel- he always picks up, even if he has to wake up to do it. **"** **Dialing the buttons more hastily, it wasn't long until that familiar ringing begun, until finally, it seemed like Frisk had got a hold of him. "** Asriel, are you with mom? She has- **" Frisk suddenly stopped talking, and became frozen as they continued to hold the phone to their ear.**

" **Why'd you stop talking? Go on ask Asriel if-"**

"Hi Asriel, this is me, Frisk… Please give me a call back when you get this. Goodbye. **"** **It had taken a while, but Frisk managed to put the phone in their pocket before staring at the floor. I knew it wouldn't be long.**

" **This is what I was talking about, Kaneki."**

" _What are you talking about-_ **" He didn't even have a chance to finish his sentence. Frisk let out a loud wail before sobbing violently. Having once possessed their soul, I had always known that Frisk was weak without me, but seeing them now only proved my own point even more. I'm not a someone who believes in miracles, nor was I the one to believe that everything would always work out for the best. If we found their dust, Kaneki would be bothered, of course, but he didn't know much about Toriel, and he had only known Asriel for a few hours, so I believed that I wouldn't have to worry about him recovering emotionally if the things came to that. Frisk on the other hand, well, they cherished all life, and I didn't even know what they'd do if they witnessed such a tragedy. At least if they stayed here, that would be one less thing to worry about.**

" **Frisk… Kaneki and I are going to go look look for them, I want you to stay here and lock the door; don't answer it unless you know it's us." I already knew what was to follow. They couldn't even speak, but rather just cried harder in protest.**

" _Why would say that?! They're worried sick about them, and you're going to tell that they can't come?!_ _ **"**_

" **I'm being smart about this, Kaneki. They're obviously too distraught to come along; they'll only slow us down." This caught Frisk's attention, which caused them to scream before trying to grab at my hair. I tried pushing them away, but they refused to let go. "Let go, you crybaby!"**

" _Just let them come with us! This is harder than leaving them behind, isn't it?_ **"**

" _ **You know what? I'm done trying to talk to them, you do it.**_ " I didn't agree with how Chara told Frisk that, but I knew Chara had a point. Even so, l couldn't bring myself to leave them in tears.

"Frisk... please don't cry." I asked as softly as I could. They had buried their head into my scarf, and still continued to sob fiercely into it. I never had to comfort anyone like this before, it was always me who had received such treatment from Hide and his mother. Although it pained me to remember, I thought back to when the Nagachika family had first adopted me. I at the time was already best friends with Hide, who I had to come to for comfort. I for the longest time believed that my mother was a sweet person, and many who thought they knew her would testified that. I had become too accustomed to the beatings to realize otherwise. After my mother had passed away, it was Hide who remained by my side, and even realizing what kind of mother I really had, he made me feel better about it. Many times, when I would wake up crying during the middle of the night, Hide had always put his arms around me to pull me into a hug, just like Frisk had done earlier. So, I pulled Frisk into a close hug and I rested my chin on their shoulder. Just like how Hide's mother would rub my back softly as she hug me, I did the same to Frisk. "Please… Don't be sad..." Saying that seemed to ease their crying into shallow breathing, yet they continued to hold on to me. Sitting down on the floor, I continued to comfort Frisk, and they continued to calm down more and more. Soon, as what I was hoping for, their light shallow breathing slowed down into a light snore. Carefully, I held on to them as I lowered them softly to the floor before getting up to drape the blanket that was folded over the living room chair on top of their sleeping body. I was quiet on my way out, and I made sure not to lock the door too loudly before silently closing it on my way out.

* * *

I made way down the stairs. Enclosed between two tall brick fortifications, I made my way down the dirt path in the glooming shadows. High above the roof of the cavern, I could barely make out the large stalactites that hung above ominously; I had almost forgotten where I actually was. " _ **Hey, stop real quick.**_ " Although I did as they said, I didn't understand why Chara wanted me stop. We were so close to leaving sight of the house. " _ **... There used to be a tree here.**_ "

"Can this wait?" I knew I was being impolite, but we had no time for reminiscing about trees. "We need to get going, so can we please discuss this another time?"

" _ **... Nevermind, it has no relevance now.**_ " I could sense a hint of sorrow in their voice, and had it been another time, I would have gladly addressed the problem. " _ **Anyways, you're going to make a right… Actually, make a left first. We forgot to bring something to defend ourselves with, so I want to see if there's still a toy knife over there.**_ " I knew nothing about the Underground, let alone the Ruins; so all I had to put my trust in was walking blindly into the unknown with a child serial killer guiding me; so of course the mere mention of a knife put me on a little one edge. But nonetheless, we turned left on the T-shaped path, and entered the next area, which was essentially just an an alley with an archway built into the northern wall. Walking through that empty area however, seemed to have bothered Chara slightly, but they remained silent; that was until we arrived on the ledged-overview that lead into the city. It wasn't the sight of the vast silhouettes of stone-built architectures over the horizon that had us awe struck. Dead center of the ledge, a mere few yards where we stood, was a white tablecloth draped down over a small table. There were two chairs parallel from each other, and sitting down at the table was a what I first thought to be a girl around my age with a plate full of cobweb-filled pastries gulping down from their white tea cup. There Chara and I stood in silence, neither of us knowing exactly how to approach the situation. "Oh wow! That's pretty a cup of water!" He didn't exactly have a masculine voice, but I had a feeling that he was a male, not that it mattered, of course. I got a better look at him when he slammed the empty cup down on the table counter, which caused it to shatter upon impact. His hair was like Chara's, except it was a pure white in color along with it being wavy and messy. He wore a red ribbon on his bangs, and the way he wore it made it look like there was a roman numeral thirteen on his forehead. His eyes were a rosey pink, and rather large might I add, which were unnervingly large and giddish. Even his outfit was a bit outlandish: a collared dress white shirt loosely buttoned up with blue suspenders. God only knew what he was wearing from the waist down. What seemed most unsettling about him, was the various spots of red switches he had stitched into his skin- most notably down his neck.

" _ **What in the world…"**_ Even Chara didn't know what to say at first glance of him, so I didn't know what they were expecting me to say. " _ **... Umm… I suppose you should start by greeting him.**_ "

"Good afternoon." I introduced myself as I tried my best to put on a smile. "I'm sorry to bother you, but-"

"-Hi! I'm Juuzou! Nice to meet you!" He shouted with a large grin on his face. "Come! Sit with me!" Juuzou then motioned toward me with a pastry in hand as he begun to rapidly tap the surface of the table, even while I was making my way toward the chair parallel from him. "Good! And how about you? Are you Juuzou too?"

" _ **What."**_

"My name's Kaneki, if that's what you were asking." He hummed for a bit while gazing around the ceiling before turning back to look at me.

"You're right, that wasn't what I was asking, but it's nice to meet you Kaneki!" He giggled as he begun to kick underneath the table. "Had I known I would be having company, than I would have made more cups of water!"

" _ **... Whatever, just ask if him if he's seen Asriel or Toriel so we can get away from him.**_ "

"Excuse me, Juuzou, have you've seen two monsters by the name or Asriel and Toriel? They have white fur and look like-"

"Sounds a lot like sheep; they're sheople, right?"

"... More like goats, really, but yes, have you've seen them?" Juuzou shook his head before reaching over to take bite of one of the many pastries he had. "I see…"

"Hey, don't look so gloom!" He said, or at least that's what I thought he said; it was a bit difficult to understand him with his mouth full of cobwebs and dough. Juuzou reached below, to what I assumed to be his pockets, before pulling out a bulky black cell phone- one identical to Frisk's. "I can't say that I've seen any farm animals around, otherwise I'd probably would be drinking milk right now instead of the water I found in a river, but I did find this while I was filling up my cup!" Juuzou slid the phone across the table and luckily I caught it. "It was vibrating earlier, and I didn't answer because it was tickling me, and I like being tickled, so I let it go to voicemail." Picking up the cell phone, I navigated through the bulky device's pixley menu to access the voicemail option. Playing back the message, I felt glad to hear Frisk's voice again through the voicemail; I also felt guilty for leaving them back in their home.

" _Hi Asriel, this is me, Frisk… Please give me a call back when you get this. Goodbye."_ I sighed to myself before zipping the cell phone up safely into my coat's pocket. Juuzou must have finally taken notice at my dismay. He grabbed my chin from across the table to make me face his grinning smile.

"Don't be so down in the dumps Kaneki! I'll help you look for them after we're done!" Juuzou reassured. Much like Chara, this caught my attention, but for different reasons. "Actually… That reminds me..." Juuzou muttered to himself. "Since I helped you, you don't mind if I have you listen to a few songs with me, do you?"

"Erm… Of course." It was then that he pulled out a CD player from underneath the table, bumping over the plate of pastries in the process, before placing it beside his plate. "What are we going to listen to?"

"Well, on my way over here, this ghost, if you can believe it, was just laying there on the ground! I think they may have had some self confidence issues, but they seemed pretty nice! In fact, they even gave me a mixtape! Isn't that great?!"

" _ **Oh God, please no.**_ "

* * *

 _So I might have lied about Toriel being in this chapter, but hey, next time for sure (probably). Don't worry, they'll leave the ruins eventually._


	5. Goodnight Kaneki Ken

_I almost forgot this was a Tokyo Ghoul fanfiction as well; time to give Kaneki some of the love he got from the manga here as well._

* * *

Thankfully for Chara, the mixtape only consisted of three songs, if one would consider them really songs. I personally thought they could be used in perhaps mixing into other songs, while Chara firmly believed that all three pieces had zero redeemable qualities. Juuzou, on the other hand, had been jamming out during the entire mixtape, which only lasted for less than a minute. After, we went down the path that Chara had originally intended on us taking and passed column after column. Despite Juuzou being, well, being him, that didn't mean that I wanted the time spent in silence. "So um, Juuzou, do you have family?"

" **I had a mother.** " He replied. In my peripheral vision, I watched him twirl his knife between his fingers- something that Chara had found interesting about him. I'd have to give him credit too, he was pretty dexterous from the looks of it.

"What was she like?"

" **I killed her.** " That conversation went south pretty fast. Although I knew Chara was trying to be a better person, I could hear them hum in delight after Juuzou admitting to shamelessly murdering his own mother. "I loved her though, don't get me wrong, but **she needed to die.** "

"Oh… I heard the Ruins are a pretty dangerous place, did you encounter any trouble at all?"

"I wouldn't call it trouble." Juuzou replied in an honest voice. "A few of the local residents here wanted to play I, so we did."

"What kind of games did you guys play?"

" **We fought.** " The more and more I dug deeper into Juuzou's character, the more I begun to realize how similar he was to Chara.

"And you used that knife to…"

" **Of course I used this knife!** Don't worry, it's just a toy, see?" Without warning, he wrapped his hand around my forearm as he brought the knife's edge toward my hand. I honestly was pretty nervous, but I didn't try to resist. Chara, however, was not as willing to throw down their trust blindly as I was. Through me, Chara took control of my other arm before swiftly grabbing hold Juuzou's wrist- stopping the supposedly plastic blade inches away from my arm.

" **D O N ' T ."** Although I appreciated Chara's protective motives behind their frightening voice, it caught me off guard; I let out a small yelp as I backed away from Juuzou, who in turn didn't seem frightened, but rather concerned.

"Huh, I wasn't expecting that." Juuzou muttered to himself. I didn't want to push him away from me, he seemed like a nice person, despite him murdering his mother and all. But hey, I wasn't one to judge, I had a cruel mother myself after all.

"I'm… I'm sorry about that." I apologized as I made my way back to his side. "This may seem unbelievable, but I'm not the only one in control of my soul, let alone actions."

"Is that why your red eye has black around it now?" Juuzou questioned as they got closer to my face to stare into my left eye, and by the funny faces they were making accompanied with a low growl coming from Chara, they were probably staring at themselves through the reflection of my eye.

" _ **Please get this idiot away from me.**_ "

"That's pretty deep." He chuckled before backing away from me. Without another word, both of us continued on our merry way. On the bright side, the area we were passing through didn't have any pillars around- so that was something to be thankful for.

* * *

The next area led into a large alley with four rather large frogs standing thoughtlessly next to each other. However, as soon as we stepped in front of the one on the far left, they all turned to face us with their vacant faces staring at me. "What…"

"Oh ho ho! Looks like we're about to have a fun time, Kaneki!" Juuzou cheered as they held their toy knife in anticipation. Before I could question to what they meant, a frog leapt toward me, which caused me to fall back on the ground as it landed on my chest.

" _ **Oh my God, Kaneki, that was embarrassing."**_ Chara groaned. " _ **Hey, brush it off, there's more coming for us**_ **.** " I grabbed the small monster by its sides before throwing if it off me.

"What kind of frogs do that?!" Not once in my life was I ever attacked by a frog, nor was I aware that there existed a species large enough to push a human back.

" _ **They're not frogs, they're froggits.**_ " Chara corrected in an informative matter. " _ **Their HP is 30, AT is 4, DEF is 5. Life is difficult for this enemy.**_ " That was… interesting of Chara to explain what I was presuming to be their stats or something in those choice words.

"... Like, I'm trying to be nice here Chara, but… HP? AT? DEF? Really?"

" _ **Shut up, this is serious.**_ " Chara objected defensively. " _ **HP means how much damage they can take before dying, AT is how strong their attacks are, and DEF is how much resistance they have from incoming attacks; just think of it in a mathematical sense.**_ " What a time consuming explanation. Nevermind how Chara was able to even come up with these numbers in the first place; out of all terms to use, Chara just had to use RPG lingo.

"So basically, you want me to pretend I'm some sort of videogame character?" I asked in a somewhat sarcastic tone.

" _ **What's a videogame?**_ " As much as I would have loved to inquire about their ability to check for the stats of others in the first place, I had to focus on the other three frogs that were ready to strike. Besides, as informative as I enjoyed being, I really didn't care what imaginary stats these monsters had. The next froggit tried the same attack as the first one, but I was able to moved out of the way in time. I turned to face where the froggit had landed, and rushed in before kicking the monster from behind. It made splat noise as it hit against the stone wall. " _ **Not too bad.**_ " The third froggit, seeing what had become of his comrade, decided not to attack on me, but rather had its sights set for Juuzou.

" **About time!** " Juuzou jeered as he held his knife in hand with a his eyes focused on the froggit's mid-air borne leaping body. Just as I had expected, Juuzou's skill with a knife was an extremely impressive sight to witness. A mere inches before the froggit could tackle him down, Juuzou jabbed the toy knife against the monster's belly- launching it up in a completely different direction. However, he wasn't quite done yet. Juuzou swung his weapon down upon the unfortunate monster, who flew back with the force and on to the ground, and with that same momentum, Juuzou flipped the toy knife around to hold it by its plastic blade before throwing it against the fourth froggit- knocking it out on impact.

"Wow…" I whispered in awe as I watched Juuzou walk over to where the knife had landed before picking it back up. Standing before him, the froggit that had first attacked me shivered after witnessing what had become of his teammates. Juuzou knelt down with a rather wicked grin on his face as he held the froggit belly-up with one hand.

" _ **Wait… No, is really about to-**_ " Juuzou suddenly drove the tip of the knife into the belly of froggit with a sickening squishing noise. The creature then disintegrated into a pile of white dust. Why wasn't I stopping him, and even worse, why was Chara letting this happen? Not only did Chara seem unfazed by have witnessing the same thing as I saw, but they weren't even trying to tell me to stop him. After watching them stomp the other three monsters into dust, I watched as they happily begun to search through to the piles of ashes for small golden coins to pocket them.

" **Don't worry, Kaneki! We'll split the loot down the middle- 50/50!** Come on, let's keep going!"

* * *

Despite Juuzou's playful and seemingly nice attitude, I could see that he was a lot like how Chara was in the same way that they regarded others lives as play toys. Or at least, that's how Chara used to be. "Hey I'm back!" Juuzou suddenly stopped to shout on their tippy toes. "Hey, Kaneki, mind waiting here while I go get a refund?"

"I guess." I replied unenthusiastically.

"Good! I'll be right back then!" And with that said, they begun their prance toward a cobweb filled alley. I began walking toward the opposite direction, in hope that I could get out of earshot for whatever he had planned for the monsters in there, if there were any.

" _ **I know it's difficult for you to understand, but he's quite powerful, so just keep him around until we get Asriel and Toriel, then we can decide on what to do after that.**_ " Chara tried comforting me, but I knew that they themselves probably didn't care about the lives of a few monsters that resemble frogs. I didn't want to admit it, but neither did I, and that's what sickened me the most. Having been distracted with my introverted thoughts, I bumped into something soft. " _ **Oh, it's them.**_ "

"oh… i'm sorry..."

"It's my fault, I should been looking where I was going." I apologized back. In front of me, there floated a stereotypical white ghost with black rings for eyes and its mouth slightly a gapped.

"i should have been paying attention to where i was laying down…"

"No, really, please don't be upset about this, you're good."

"oh… i must be making this really awkward for you two…" I was caught off guard by how he had said 'you two'. Did he mean Juuzou, but he was in a different area, so that couldn't have been. Perhaps he could see Chara somehow. "did your friend not want to be noticed…? im sorry…i keep making this more and more awkward…"

" _ **Can they sense me?**_ "

"and hear you…sorry for not telling you sooner…"

"I apologize, I didn't quite catch your name."

"napstablook… oh god…i forgot to tell you that too…" Napstablook whimpered with tears falling down onto the purple tiles below.

"I'm Kaneki, and this is Chara; it's a pleasure to meet you, Napstablook."

" **Yeah, what he said.** " I had almost forgotten what Chara had looked like, and seeing them now standing beside me was a sight that I welcomed now. " **Napstablook, have you've seen Asriel or Toriel around?** "

"i saw asriel coming through this way earlier…i believe that he was looking for his mother…"

" **So just Asriel then… Well, let's go get Juuzou and leave Kaneki; you've been of help, ghost.** " Chara thanked before fading back into me. " _ **Come on Kaneki, let's go.**_ "

"Wait." I muttered under breath. I didn't want to leave Napstablook in tears, that would be cruel. That's what I told myself anyway, the reality of it was that I just wanted to feel better about myself from what I had done earlier. "Would you like to come with us?"

"im not really feeling up to it right now, sorry…" They sighed. Rather than saying anything back, I stood there patiently smiling at him. "heh…" Napstablook seemed a little better after me having just simply smiled at them. "i am… sorry if that bothers you…"

" _ **Kaneki, what are you doing?**_ " I chuckled as I held my chin.

"Oh no worries, but I really think you coming along with us would be beneficial to you."

" _ **Please tell me you're not trying to be funny.**_ "

"oh… why is that…?"

"Because, if you came along-"

" _ **Kaneki, stop.**_ "

"- We could maybe find an elevator to lift your spirit!"

" _ **Kaneki, why?**_ " I knew that joke was terrible, and even I felt a little ashamed of it. Nonetheless though, it served its purpose.

"heh… heh…" My efforts in cheering them up seemed to have improved their mood again. "kaneki… would you like to see something…?" I nodded. Napstablook then smiled softly as their tears flew upward toward their head to form a top hat. "i call it "dapper blook", do you like it it...?" I smiled as I gave them a quick appulse in response, which I could tell made them feel good about themselves. "oh gee… thank you for being nice to me, but i really should go home… do you have a phone i could reach you with…?" I knew it might have been rude to use Asriel's cell phone as my own, but I just told myself I would just use it to save Napstablook's number to write it down for later.

* * *

I was thankful that Napstablook left before Juuzou returned. The next few rooms consisted of odd puzzles that I would have compared to those found in dungeon-based videogames. Not to say that they weren't fun, but Chara kept spoiling how to complete each puzzle while Juuzou had already completed most of them. I did enjoy falling down into a pile of leafs though, that was really fun. However, after realizing that monsters turned into dust after their deaths, that's when I begun to notice more and more dust scattered around various spots in each of the rooms we passed through. Had Juuzou lied about not killing any of the monsters, or did he just believe that he wasn't doing it? It wasn't until we came upon a room with leafs scattered across did we see the next monster. There cowering in the corner, was a froggit, who stared at me with bulging eyes. " **Oh? I must have missed one.** " Juuzou chuckled, but before he could get close to it, I grabbed him by his shoulder. "What is it Kaneki?"

"I… I don't want you to kill that froggit." He gave me a blank expression. "You do realize you're killing them, right? When they become dust, that means they're dead."

" **Of course I know, Kaneki.** " Juuzou said as he brushed my hand off his shoulder. " **But why are you having a problem with this now? You didn't say anything earlier about it.** "

"I know… But, I've had some time to think about it. I know essentially they're just frogs, but even so, you didn't have to kill them." I argued. "You're having too much fun with this, and earlier you said you didn't kill any of them! What ever happened to that?"

" **You're a coward Kaneki.** " Juuzou pointed out flatley. " **I hadn't planned for those froggits being there, mind you, so when they did attack us, I wanted to see how you would react. And let me tell you this: you might not have noticed it, but you enjoy hurting others.** " He smiled after saying that. " **But that's okay, I know Chara does too… But you're getting pretty boring now...** " Suddenly, their scaleras became black and their irises glew a cyan color. Their smiled grew and grew into a sadistic grin. " **You know what? I think I wanna play with you instead. I wonder… Will you turn into dust too?** " Juuzou tossed the plastic knife on the ground near my feet, to which I just stared at. " **Go on, pick it up.** "

"Juuzou…" I couldn't tell if there was any point reasoning with him anymore. Was it too late? "You need to calm down, we can't we just-"

" **-Don't think badly of me for doing this.** " Between his fingers appeared a transparent cyan silhouette of a knife, and I watched in shock as he raised his arm to throw it. "What the- **"** Juuzou, surprised, turned his head to see that the froggit wrapped itself around his arm in a feeble attempt to stop him. "That's so cute!" Juuzou laughed as he reached over to grab a hold of the froggit, which tried to squirm its way of his tight grip. " **Kaneki, if you really care about this thing's life, then come, take it away from me.** "

" _ **Don't do it; it's not worth jeopardizing our existence.**_ " Chara warned in a slightly panicked voice. " _ **Kaneki, in case you haven't noticed, we're not exactly in a state you would call "alive". That froggit has a soul and a body, it'll live on if he kills it. If you die, then that's it; it'll just be me in this-**_ "

" **-Took too long!** " In a flash, Juuzou squashed the monster in his hand and into a cloud of dust. With the remains on his palm, Juuzou playfully blew the dust toward me. " **Talk about selfish; to think, all you had to do was just take the thing from my hand, and it would have lived.** "

" _ **Don't blame yourself, you did the smart thing.**_ " Had I? Letting another life, no matter how insignificant it was to me, perish, even when there was a possibility I could have saved it. With the feeling of dread coursing through my being, if I could be considered it as that. I knew that Juuzou had his sights set on me, and there was no talking my way out of this either. " _ **...Kaneki, you should let me-**_ " Suddenly, I felt the cyan blade pierce through me. Looking down to where Juuzou had thrown the knife in, I watched in pain as red particles emitted from where I had been impaled. It wasn't long until the shock wore off and I realized just how much pain I was actually in. I let out a scream, and with me, I could even hear Chara's scream as well. Mixed in with our cries of pain, I could hear Juuzou laughing in delight.

" **Wow, I thought you were supposed to be a quick learner, Kaneki!** " Trying my best to ignore the pain, I reached for the toy knife in a desperate act to defend myself. I knew it wouldn't do much, but I thought if I had used well enough, I could deteriorate his efforts in attacking me. I rushed forward with the knife in hand and tried slashing their chest with it, but Juuzou had no trouble countering my endeavor by grabbing my arm before impaling my forearm with another cyan knife. Not wanting give him the satisfaction of hearing me scream, I gritted my teeth as I got back up to my feet. " **At least make this fun for me, Kaneki!** "

" _ **Kaneki, I can take the pain, let me take control!**_ " Chara begged, which even in my pain, I was able to find beauty in their words. For someone who claimed to not to care about lives of others, I was touched that they cared about mine. " _ **You're going to die? Doesn't that bother you?!**_ "

"No." I spat out as I pulled the cyan blade from my arm. In my hand, the cyan weapon evaporated along with the red mist that shot out from where it had hit me. "You're not going to hurt anyone else." Being more than aware of his ability of his knives, I was able to move out of the way of his next attack, and this time I was able to duct in time away before they could grab me. Seeing an opening, I took the opportunity to drive the blade of my own weapon into their chest. I knew the weapon would have shattered, it was plastic after all, but at least no one would be able to say that I didn't try.

" **You sure got me really good, haha!"** Even when I knew what was sure to come, I continued to focus on resisting Chara's desperate attempts to take control in their attempt to save me. However, I knew that if we were to switch control, then they would be the one perish instead of me, and… and I couldn't do that to them. At least this would give Chara the chance to run. I took Hide's chance to live a happy life, and I refused to repeat that mistake with them. " **Allow me to return a favor.** "

" _ **Kaneki please, let me help you...**_ "

"You already did." Smiling, I could feel tears pouring down profusely down the left side of my face as I stared into the twisted face of Juuzou. Grabbing my shoulder to put me down on my knees, Juuzou plunged the cyan blade deep into my neck. I wondered if my best really was enough. I knew that Chara had to endure the pain with me, but otherwise I would like to think that if they weren't screaming, they would said something along the lines that they'll miss me. Was this enough, Hide; was this good enough to have earn your forgiveness? I hoped so. I felt really tired, and soon found myself growing deaf to Juuzou's laughing and Chara's screams, and it wasn't soon until I found the world going black. It reminded me a lot like when I first met Chara. Amazing how close we could bond from sharing the same soul. Well, I suppose it was their soul now. Goodnight Chara, and thank you for your friendship.

* * *

 **On my knees, my vision was blurred through the tears that were flooding down both my cheeks. In front of me stood the bastard as he stared into my eyes. Through my tear soaked eyes, I leapt to tackle him to the ground. Since he found it so hilarious to stab Kaneki in the neck, I found it justified to end his life in the same way. Or at least, that's what I wanted to think. At the moment, I just wanted him dead. Biting into neck, I begun to take chunk after chunk of his HP away from him, and even as a cyan mist flooded from his neck, he still continued to scream. In a primal rage, I grabbed the sides of his head to slam his head repeatedly into the tiled floor. I would have kept going until there was nothing left, but a pair of hands grabbed me from the collar. By the time I had realized that I was being pulled away, I was blindfully clawing toward the direction of Juuzou, who weakly tried to crawl away from me. "** Thank you… Mama… **" He whispered.**

 **"** Kaneki! Stop! **" Looking behind me, I could see that it was Toriel holding me back, and beside her stood Asriel, who looked at me like I was some sort of demon. "** Asriel, why would you have left him with Frisk?! **" Why were they holding me back?!**

 **"** He… He wasn't like this before… I mean… he was, but… **"** **What?! Did they not just witness what happened to Kaneki?! "** Chara, is that you right now? **"**

 **" ." I screeched as I continued to reached out toward the direction of Juuzou. "He… He killed him…" I whispered, after all, it was hard trying to speak through my sobbing. Asriel made his way next to me, and gave me worried expression. "What… What are you doing?!"**

 **"** Chara, Juuzou was just trying to find you and Kaneki! **"** **… That wasn't true.**

 **"Didn't you see?! They killed Kaneki! They jabbed a knife into his throat, I saw it, I felt it!"**

 **"** They kept screaming for you to stop hurting yourself! **"** **Toriel shouted. "** You… You need help, poor child. **"** **I didn't understand what was going on. How was I hurting myself? I was defending myself from him, for God's sake! It was then that I caught glimpse on the ground of what I thought had been a toy knife. Seeing it now, I could make it out to be the same kitchen knife from earlier, but I didn't understand how that was possible. Kaneki had forgotten it, so why was it there? And even Juuzou looked different than before. Instead of white hair, he had normal black hair, and there we no red stitches were inside of his skin. I couldn't have imagined everything, there was no way.**

"Don't worry Chara, we'll help you and Kaneki get better… **"** **Asriel spoke as he tried to reach in for a hug. I was always in control, wasn't I? I couldn't help but wonder if it had been Kaneki and Frisk that had always been my voice of reason before and without them...**

" **I'm breaking, yet unbreakable…" I couldn't help but beginning to grin as I held on to my cheeks- singing in between my sobs. "I'm crazy, but I have control…" Hearing me singing, Asriel backed away a little to stare at me with a sadden look. "I'm breaking, yet unbreakable… I'm crazy, but I have control..." Oh God, what was happening to me?! Through my tears, I watched Toriel rush toward Juuzou to provide aid to his wounds. I knew better though, no I didn't. Drip drop, drip drop, I could hear the river running. With my shaking and oh so gentle hands, Kaneki's hands, I unzip my good friend Kaneki's coat pocket to give Asriel's back without acknowledging him. He might been speaking to me, but I couldn't hear him over my singing and sobbing. I really wished I could have heard Kaneki sing, he seemed the kind to be at least decent at it. Asriel said he'd help me, but shouldn't we wait until Kaneki comes back before having dinner? Mom always made the best pies, and she was a really good cook as she was a baker. Oh, I could see it, blink, blink, blink; I had to blink the tears away, but they refused to stop shedding. Drip drop, drip drop, just like the river.** **RESET.** **Rivers are nice, I was sure Kaneki would like to come with me to one someday. Drip drop, drip drop.** **RESET** **. Maybe Kaneki would read me a story, he did like reading after all.** **RESET.** **Standing there watching everything happening before me was getting me pretty exhausted, and I could use a good nap. TRUE RESET.**

 **Goodnight Kaneki, I'll see you in the morning.**

* * *

 _ **RIP in peace, Kaneki. You were a good bang. For those who followed the next series of RE:, I think you'll know who's coming to town next chapter.**_


	6. Seasons Die One After Another

_Just as a warning, this chapter is rather dark, but not super angst. Sorry for the wait, but I wanted this new chapter to come with the never cover art, but it's going to be done soon, so I'll just release it when the next chapter comes. Some of the material I've used is actually inspired from Chara's Beginnings along with a few other comics that you might be able to recall._

* * *

Upon waking up, I found that I had been resting in a white flower patch that was surrounding me as my eyes fluttered opened. I must have slept really heavily, because I felt dazed as I tried to get up. Luckily, I had still had on my green coat, scarf, and thankfully my pair of pants, so I wasn't very cold. Judging by the grey skies above, I was lucky to still have my clothing on this time. Wait, that wasn't right. Infact, miles away from me, I could see Mt. Ebott standing over the early morning horizon. I begun to wonder if it had all been a dream, or rather some sort of bittersweet nightmare. The grass outside of the patch of flowers I stood on was rather high in height, and the nearby path had looked rugged and, well, it was just a dirt path. In fact, I couldn't see sight of any familiar landmarks belonging to the national park, just vast fields of grass over the hills and trees. "Chara, how did we end up out here… And where exactly are we?" Now, Chara may not have been omnipotent as much as they had led on, but it wouldn't have hurt to ask. "Chara?" I didn't get a response that time either. "Please Chara, this isn't the time to be giving me the silent treatment." I chuckled uneasily, but alas, silence is what I was met with once again. It soon became apparent to me that they weren't with me, which led me to question their whereabouts. I hoped they weren't still in the Underground, but it wouldn't make sense if they were; not that trying to make sense of anything really meant anything to me anymore.

Suddenly, I caught hearing of the distant sound of galloping hooves coming down the dirt path. Thinking that who ever rode the horses would be able to assist me, I made my way closer to the path as I tried waving them down. What I saw puzzled me and was quite an oddity of a sight to see, to say the least. There riding down the trail, two armored horses with two knights mounted on them were coming my way. I could only imagine that maybe they were on their way to a renaissance fair. When they got close to me, I backed away as the leading knight's horse stood up on its back legs before letting out a neigh. "Child, what is thy name?" These guys must be pretty dedicated actors.

"My nameth iseth, uh, Kaneki Ken… eth." I giggled to myself, to which the knight gave me a questioning look in response. "Sayeth, whateth be thy nameth as welleth, sir knighteth?"

"... You're quite the jester, child." He chuckled. Taking off his visor, I could see the man's friendly smile and black eyes looking back at me. "I am Sir Amon." He introduced himself, before turning his head to nod at the knight behind him. "This is my partner, Sir Akira, daughter of Kuero Mado." Looking over to Akira, she had taken off her visor to stare at me with a bored expression. "Kaneki, do thouth wish to travel back to the village with us?" I knew that taking rides from strangers wasn't a very smart idea, but it beat having to walk back home. Who knows, maybe this guy could get me into the fair for free, then I would be able to call... I had to focus on one thing at a time.

"Yes please." He held his arm down, to which I hopped up to grab hold of. With ease, he lifted me up and helped me on the back of his saddle. "This is perhaps a long shot but, you wouldn't have happened to have know someone named Chara have you?" Amon gave me a questioning look as he and Akira rode down the trail.

"What would a child like you know about her?" Her? Is that what their sex was? I never considered Chara to be gender orientated, but I suppose that some people wouldn't address them as genderless. After all, Chara did had sort of long hair. Whatever, it wasn't my business.

"Well, it's kind of weird, but just like you and Akira, I suppose that Chara and I are partners in the same sense." I explained as I kept my eyes on the scenery surrounding us as we entered the forest. "But in reality, we're really good friends." Amon remained silent for quite sometime, probably thinking to himself. It wasn't until we exited the forest and begun to ride near a large lake shimmering with the grey clouds above did he let out a sigh.

"A child such as the likes of thouth, so naive and good." He chuckled half heartedly. "That's good though." Amon shrugged. "Child, surely you must be aware of the legend?"

"Mt. Ebott? Yes, I know of the monsters down there." Amon let out a soft laugh from that.

"Thou really art a jester after all." He chuckled. "Child, that was recent, by no means is it a legend!"

"... You can stop the roleplaying you know." I muttered. Despite how friendly he was being, he was starting to frustrate me. He obviously knew who Chara was. "Look, I'm thankful for the ride, but Chara's my friend, and I would like to see them as soon as possible." For the rest of the ride, Amon remained silent.

* * *

Before I knew it, we were in the midst of the market in the middle of the village. After thanking them both, I hopped off the horse to land on a patch of the same white flowers from before. "Safe travels, Kaneki."

"Goodbye, Amon! You too Akira!" After waving them goodbye, I turned around to see the several market stands ranging from produce to tools around the small area. I didn't care at this point if this was still a fair or not, I just had to find Chara. "It's me! Kaneki!" I shouted on the top of my lungs as I made a quick jog around the market. I was attracting the attention of some of the villagers, I had no doubts about it, but it seemed as though they were all too focused on whatever was transpiring in the middle of the large crowd to keep their focus on me for long. "Chara! Where are you?!" Suddenly, all commotion fell into silence, and those who had seen me returned their attention all on me as soon as I mentioned Chara's name. All the eyes of the people staring made me nervous, but I held my ground as I approached the group. "Umm… E-Excuse me, but has anyone seen a child my size? Actually, they might even be a little taller than me, but um… Their name is Chara, they have brown hair-"

"Red eye!" One of the villagers shouted out in a disgruntled voice. I paused, and nodded with a shrug.

"Well, they actually have _two_ red eyes, not one. But-" Suddenly, a large man grab hold on my wrist with brute force. I let out a yelp of pain, and tried to pull away, but the man's size and strength surpassed my own. "What are you doing?!"

"Demon! That child shares evil with the demon!" A woman from the crowd shouted as I was dragged toward the middle of the crowd. I heard insults and curses as well as feeling spitting and even a felt few punches and kicks from the surrounding villagers. What had I done wrong?

"Is our sins far too much for a single child to hold?" Another voice quickly asked. The large man raised me in the air before slamming me hard against the dirty ground below. Dazed and out of breath, I felt tears crawling down my cheeks as I stared up into the skies. The crowd began to shout more and more curses at me, but I couldn't make out what they were saying at that point. Kick after kick, spit after spit, I felt more despair than I've ever known.

After an hour, I could sworn that some of the faces in the crowd resembled my mother. Might as well have been.

"Enough!" A loud a sudden voice boomed through the madness. Throughout my body, I felt nothing but pain, but I was able to turn my head slightly enough to see a tall man with short white hair dressed in grey robes standing above me. "The gods appeared to have given us a new child, one that carries a single red eye… What is this?!" He questioned in exaggeration as knelt down to get a better look at me. After analyzing my face, he spat on it before standing back up to address the crowd. "Loyal servants, this child is bearing a both red and grey eyes! This must be a test of the gods for us to show our purity to them!" Nothing he was saying made sense, yet, the crowd around him listened and were clearly agreeing with anything this crazed man was saying. "The brothers and I shall discuss further more what we should do with this child! For now good people, rest and continue on with your day; fear not, the gods have yet to steer us wrong, and neither have we!" Although they had stopped attacking me, the villagers dispersing spat and threatened me as they continued on with their day. "Help him up and follow me to the temple." Feeling familiar small hands around my chest and arm, I stared up to see their dark red eyes staring at me with a look of utter sorrow.

* * *

Traversing across the white and black checkered marble floor of the chapel, Chara and I silently made our way into the basement where the cultist had ordered us to go by force. Being thrown inside, the door locked from the outside as we were plunged into darkness. However, I heard Chara shuffling around in some drawers before they lit a candle on the ground. "I never seen them so violent." Chara muttered under their breath. They stood up to walk over to their bedding on the ground, where they kept a bucket fill with what I supposed was water. Pulling out two clothes, they made their way back over to me before handing me a wet cloth. We sat there as we wiped off the spit and dirt matted on our faces. On my cloth, through the dimly lit room, I caught glimpse of blood on it. Blood, not that red mist from before. "... How do you know my true name?" Although they looked different with their torn clothing and messy hair, I was glad to hear that they were who I thought they were. However, I was also sad to see them in this sort of state.

"We're friends." I smiled back as I reached my arm to put on their shoulders. They flinched as I did so, but soon just stared at my arm as as kept my hand on their shoulder. How long were they treated like this, to have reacted so badly from a mere friendly gesture such as a shoulder pat? It upsetted me. This is what their lives must have been like, and just how I assumed and what they've told me in the past, they indeed did have a terrible life. "Why are they doing this to you?" I asked, to which Chara looked at me as though I was mocking them, but after a while, they realized I was serious.

"... You must be new here… You see, humans are born with evil in them, and since it's impossible clean ourselves even through good deeds, I was chosen to bear all the evils of humanity… Or so I thought I was the only one." They sighed as they stared back at me. "We exist so that no matter what, the rest of humanity can do nothing evil."

"... Is that what you believe though?"

"Why else would they treat us like this?" Perhaps they didn't remember what happened, but I still refused to believe that they should accept being content with that sort of outlook on life. Looking down toward my legs, I watched as the same white flowers from before growing around me. That's when the door swung open.

* * *

Several robbed men had grabbed me to strap me to a wooden chair in the middle of the chapel's marble floor. The same man from before had explained that I was the link between humanity and evil, and that I would have the supposed honor to endure the trials of being a martyr for humanity's evils, so that the gods would be suffice with allowing the eradication of evil for all. Like I said earlier, none of what they were saying made sense. I felt terrified when I saw who would be the one to inflict 'justice' against me. There standing in front of me, stood my mother, dressed in the same shirt and skirt that she would go to work countless times in. She smiled as she approach toward me with a basket of white flowers. She wordless scattered them on the floor at my feet. I refused to beg or talk to her; I was now catching on that this wasn't real, but the pain was. Inside the basket, she pulled out a pair of pliers, and begun to crush my fingers one by one. " _ **This is what they would have done to me, Kaneki.**_ " I cletched my teeth. In this hell, my body refused to allow me to pass out from the pain, so I had to endure the pain of each one of my fingers being crushed in between those bloodied pliers. Looking down, I could see that my nails had become blackened from the nail collapsing into shards. " _ **I had to leave, I didn't want to live like this.**_ " After getting done with my fingers, she moved down to my toes. " _ **Why were you trying to save me?! Do you honestly think I was worth saving, is that it?**_ " Placing the bloodied piliers back into her basket, my mother hummed a tune as she pulled out a dagger. " _ **Or did you just want to die?**_ " I closed my eyes as I felt my mother plunge the blade repeatedly through my hands. " _ **I wouldn't blame you if that was why… Honestly, I wouldn't want to exist with a monster like me either.**_ " After all the feeling from my hands had gone numb, she begun to slash wildly into my arms and chest. " _ **After all, none of the is real. What you're experiencing right now is just an over exaggerated memory of mine, except I'm making this far worse for you than anything I went through.**_ " I had lost all feeling in my arms at this point, and just as I had feared, my mother mirrored what she had done to my arms and hands to my legs and feet. " _ **So just take your soul back already, stop trying to let me have it!**_ " Tossing the dagger into the bloodied basket, my mother kissed me on my forehead. Opening my eyes, I could see her calling in for a robbed man to place a tall mirror in front of me. " _ **Marie Antoinette syndrome, is what they call it. You know, your hair being white due to stress and all… But would you like to know something?**_ " Pulling out a sharper yet smaller knife, my mother plunged it inside my right eye. Through my left eye, I could see that my hair was white in my reflection. " _ **This is how I saw you ever since we met.**_ " The pain immediately came to a halt as I was plunged into darkness as soon as my mother shoved another knife into my left eye.

* * *

" **This is what you wanted, right? Well, now that it's just us, and there's no way for me to RESET, I think we'll just have the same fun with each other as before, partner.** " I felt their hand over my shoulder before they swung me around to face their blackened and mangled eyes. Their ungodly scream shuddered me to my core as they got closer to my face. Pushing me on the ground, they pulled hard on my scarf in order to strangle me. I felt the pain of suffocation as I gasped for breath. Harder and harder they pulled, but all I felt was pain rather than any sense that my life was in danger; after all, wasn't I already dead? " **I'm the demon that you invited into your soul, Kaneki! You and I will be in this eternal hell together, and it doesn't matter what-** " I cut them off mid sentence. I wrapped my arms around them and held them in close as I hug them.

"You're not a demon though." I whispered quietly. This infuriated them.

" **Yes I am!** " Shoving me back on the ground, Chara pulled off my scarf before wrapping their hands around my throat. " **I'm the demon that-** "

"Stop." I whispered as placed my hands around their back. Through their black disfigured eyes, I could see their red pupils beginning to take form as they stared at me in shock. I continued to comfort them with a smile on my face, to which then I could see all blackness evaporate from their eyes. Despite what many had thought about their red eyes, I could only see innocence and greatness. "You're just a kid." I felt their hands move away from my throat as tears fell from their eyes and onto my face. "We're both just kids."

" **... Why… Why are you keep being so nice to me?** "

* * *

"That's Kaneki for you." Both our eyes widened as we looked at each other before turning to face who had said that, but I had already instantly recognized that voice. "Always thinking about others, even when he thinks he's being selfish!"

"… Hide?!" I couldn't believe it. There standing beside Chara and I, was my best friend, the one I had killed. He wore the same green slacks with his yellow and black jacket just as he had on when we left for Mt. Ebott. He even had on the very same goofy grin that I longed to see ever since that day.

"Hey buddy! Who's your friend?" Looking over at him, Chara was quick to help me up to my feet as they stood beside me with their hand interlocked into mine.

" **I'm… I'm Chara.** " Staring around us, Hide chuckled to himself as he quickly whistled a tune.

"Wow, is it always this dark in here?" He asked jokingly. Raising his hand, Chara and I watched as the void slowly faded away, and instead of darkness surrounding us, we found ourselves underneath a blue sky with white clouds painted across its beauty. "Much better… Oh, my bad! Chara, right? That's a pretty sweet name!" Although I found myself smiling, I looked over to see that Chara had refused to even look at Hide in the eye.

"Chara?" I leaned my head in to see their face, but they turned away as soon as I caught a glimpse of them still crying.

" **I'm… I'm sorry.** "

"You shouldn't be sorry, infact, I should be thanking you!" Chara lifted their chin to looked up at Hide with a look of confusion.

" **Why?! I hurt Kaneki!** "

"You might have been a little too extreme with your methods, but I get it: You just wanted to look out for Kaneki, which I really respect!" Hide turned his attention to me with a little bit a sad look, but was still smiling nonetheless. "Kaneki, you have to stop blaming yourself for what happened, okay? What happened was just an accident, I know you didn't mean to kill me." He chuckled. "Heck, what's done is done, so there's no reason to be stuck in the past now, is there? Chara, that goes for you too." Hide scolded lightly before placing his hand over my hair to rub through it playfully. Taking his hand off my head, Hide placed his hand over my shoulder. "Kaneki, if you give your soul to Chara, they'll live as a separate entity than you, you know this, right?"

"I do, Hide." I gave Chara a smile as I felt their hand tighten softly around mine.

" **What will happen to Kaneki then?** "

"Kaneki will cease to exist." Hide stated, and I knew something was up as he said that in his purposefully over dramatic voice, so I didn't feel any dread from hearing that. "Neither will I, because... Dream roll please!" I knew this must have been mind boggling for Chara to experience, but I couldn't help myself as I leaned down to pat my free hand over the legs of my pants to mimic the sound of banging of drums. I couldn't explain what was going on, but it didn't matter to me, I was having a blast! Letting go of Chara's hand, Hide and I locked hands as we begun to dance around like idiots. We giggled and laughed, and the more and more we danced, the less I noticed the sky around us fading away into the front of Toriel's house.

* * *

 **I was at lost for words. Where Kaneki and Hide were, laid a single kid laughing like a complete idiot to himself in a field of white flowers. It was Kaneki, or at least he looked and sounded a lot like him. Gone was his winter outfit, in fact, I looked down to see that I was wearing them; instead, he wore a light grey suit, with two useless zippers on his chest might I add, that hung above his knees as well as a solid white tie and black dress shirt, which matched his black-striped slacks and brown shoes. His hair was in the shape of Kaneki's, and even the bottom half of his hair was white, but it seemed slightly longer and a bit messier than before, and on the top half was black- much like how Hide's hair was. As he smiled at me, I could see that his left eye was now brown while his right eye was grey. This was the happiest I've ever seen Kaneki, and it was rather refreshing. "Kaneki?"**

"Used to be. **" He chuckled as he got up to brush himself off. Without warning, he leapt toward me with his arms outstretched. Not wanting him to fall, I gladly swung him around before we embraced in a joyful hug.**

" **What should I call you then?" He took a moment to think of response, as he made clicking noises with his mouth.**

"How about… Haise Sasaki? **"**

" **Haise Sasaki? What does that even mean?"**

"Who cares, it sounds cool! **" Haise Sasaki, huh? I knew it was just Kaneki with Hide's soul, but it didn't matter. We were alive, and if Kaneki wanted to be called that now, then so be it! Suddenly, I felt another pair or arms wrap around us. I turned around to see that it was Frisk, but it didn't stop there. Two more hugs were followed by first Asriel, then Juuzou, and before I knew it, the five of us were picked up by Toriel as she snuggled us. "** Hey, you're gonna mess up my tie!" **I couldn't help but smile at his attempts to try to keep his tie in place. I supposed not all humans were bad, heck, I was beginning to embrace the idea of having a family. It had been a while since I last saw a glimpse of the sky, and now with that image still fresh in my head, only made me question to myself why humanity wanted to keep monsters away from it. In fact, all this darkness and cavernous setting was rather dull compared to the outside.**

" **Haise." I whispered in his ear. "I want to go back to the surface… I want all of us to leave this place."**

"Is that so? **" He chuckled. "** Then it's settled, we'll destroy the barrier then. **"**

" **How do you think we're going to do that?"**

"I know we can do it! **"** **Frisk cheered.**

"I think so too! I mean, he brought you and himself back to life didn't he? **"** **Juuzou laughed. I watched him as he stuck his fingers in Haise's mouth to make him smile. I heard Toriel gasp slightly as well as Asriel and I watched as they backed away from the hug to stare in awe above us. I looked up to see what they had been staring at. Above the four us, I could see four white hearts hovering above us. The cavern begun to vibrate violently, and the four us seized the hugging to focus our attention on the four white hearts beginning to beat faster and faster. Suddenly, four beams of color light erupted from above and flew straight down at what I supposed were our souls. A beautiful eruption of colors illuminated the room in a flash, and when the lights and vibrations had stopped, we looked above to see that the hearts above our head had became vibrant with color and even had a pulse of their own. Frisk and I's red souls back lowered into our bodies, just as Juuzou's cyan heart and Haise's black and white heart did as well.**

"Well… That just happened. **"** **Haise chuckled as he fixed his tie, or at least he tried. What had just happened didn't exactly frighten me, not at all… in fact, it gave me a warm feeling of happiness. "** But yeah, don't worry, I'll make sure that barrier goes away... **"** **He muttered under his breath.** **I could tell that he was starting to get frustrated at this point where he was making small grunts as he fumbled with his tie. I smiled as I lightly pushed his hands away before taking hold of the tie to fix it myself. "** Thank you Chara! **"**

" **Don't mention it, after all, we can't save the day with you looking like trash now, can we?" I chuckled. Although I had fixed his tie, my hands remained wrapped around it as I continued to smile at him. I could feel my cheeks blushing as I leaned in for a small kiss on his nose. "First, let's get something to eat; I haven't eaten in a** _ **REALLY**_ **long time."**

* * *

"I bEg Of YoU… PlEaSe… DoN't EnDaNgEr tHe LiVeS oF aNyOnE. **" My orders were clear, yes, but I wasn't going to allow someone who didn't even exist tell me what to do.**

" **You want everyone to stay here, right?" I mused with a glare at my self-proclaimed father. "Well, asking them isn't going to do anything, so just stand back and keep pissing and moaning over how much you miss your sons or whatever." WD Gaster had a look of despair on his misshapen face, and even beaten and laying helplessly on the white floor of that small room, he continued to beg for the lives of those who existed in the Underground. I didn't see why he did, I'd imagine spending time in a place with of naught would make one stop caring about anything.**

"We NeEd To PrOtEcT tHeM, nO oNe Is To Die! **" I scoffed at the fool hearted scientist as I brushed my fingers through my red bangs.**

" **I'll make sure they stay, but if they succumb to their wounds to the point where they die… Well, that's just their fault for being weak now, isn't it?" WD Gaster glared at me as he tried to get up, to which I quickly rectified that by grabbing his broken body with a single tendril before slamming him against the wall.**

"... YoU'rE nOtHiNg LiKe KaNeKi Or HiDe… **" I flashed a quick grin at him as I knelt down to remove the key he kept in his black coat.**

" **You're right, I'm not." I chuckled as I stood on my feet. As I turned to leave, I kicked a shattered gaster blaster across the floor and into a cloud of dust as I held the key out in front of me. Through the glitching reality and static sounds of white noise, I could faintly make out the sound of a waterfall through the distortions. Turning back, I stared at him with the same black and white eyes that he glared back at me before grinning at him. "I'll love to stay and continue this conversation, but… I think it's time for this bird to leave the cage."**

"AkAnEkI… pLeAsE… lEt ThEm LiVe… **" Typical banter coming from him that I grew accused them in short time I knew him, but it was still pathetic nonetheless.**

" **If they want their own happy ending, then they'll all have to earn it… I know I'll have to earn mine."**

* * *

 _Okay, I promise this time, for real, that the next chapter will be them leaving the Ruins lol. Just to clearify by the way, Akaneki is the latest form of Kaneki from the manga, you know, the one that gets his arm chopped off and stuff lol._


	7. Heartache

_Happy Valentines day sort of. I'm planning on making a late Valentine's story later this month, so I have that on the side. Sorry for the long update, I had to scrap like, three chapters before getting this one right. I thank you for the follows and favorites, and especially your reviews. It means a lot for you to read this, so thank you._

 _2/17/2016 EDIT: Changed the scene when Haise fights Juuzou._

* * *

After we had dinner, Asriel and Juuzou offered to help clean up. Toriel had me stay in the bedroom while she and Frisk went off to do some shopping. So there I patiently sat on Asriel's mattress, waiting for her return. Speaking for myself, I couldn't wait to explore what else the Underground had to offer; however, Chara had just kept to themselves since the two left for the marketplace. Laying on the floor beside the bed, Chara hummed to themselves with a box of crayons to their side as they drew on the sheet of paper in front of them. "Whatcha drawing?"

" **A picture.** " Chara replied as they continued their attention on their artwork.

"Okay, so what's it a picture of?"

" **I'll show you later.** " I found it odd that Chara was reluctant to show, let alone tell, me what they were working on. Perhaps they were embarrassed to show me the rough draft? And as much as I was tempted to take a peek, every time I tried slightly move, it would cause Chara to move the paper out of my view once more. Not wanting to bother them, I instead just laid down on the mattress as I stared up at the ceiling. " **Haise, if there's anything you want to do in this house, I'd suggest you do it before we head out.** "

"Why's that?"

" **Because once we leave, we're probably not going to be able to come back.** " Hearing that made me feel a sudden drop in my heart I felt my eyes widen. Sitting up on the mattress, Chara groaned in annoyance as they moved once more to avoid me being able to view their picture.

"I don't understand why we wouldn't be able to come back." Putting their crayons away, Chara picked up the picture to begin folding it into their pocket before turning to face me.

" **Along with Toriel's motherly side, she's very protective, and… Ever since you arrived, I can't really be sure what will happen next… But, be prepared to fight her.** " My heart dropped, and even with telling me this, Chara seemed absolutely unfazed with this.

"Fight her?!"

" **You're a hero now right?** " Chara chuckled with a headshake. " **And if you and her must fight, then you'll have to face her alone.** "

"... Why do you want me to fight her?" Holding on to their chin, Chara stared at the ground for a few seconds before shaking their head.

" **I don't; I just need to make sure you can handle yourself is all.** " Chara replied. " **As for Toriel… I don't think she wants either of us to leave, to be honest.** " I could see their point, and it wasn't very unreasonable for them to want to test my ability to handle myself, not at all; however, I found it ghoulish that my first battle would have to be against the very monster who saw me as her child. " **Just think of it as uh… An emotional fortifying exercise as well; I mean, there's pretty much no one who you wouldn't be able to fight after beating your own mother now, is there?** **Besides, she won't actually be really trying to hurt you, so don't take it too serious.** "

"Sure…" I muttered. As if on cue, there came a knock at the bedroom door. Chara gave me a sly smile and wink as they leaned down to pick up the crayons to put them in their back pocket.

"Frisk and I have returned from the market!" Toriel announced as she opened the door. Running past her dress, Frisk quickly moved past her and leapt toward me with their arms stretched out. "Frisk was so excited to show you their new outfit!" After they were done hugging me, I looked down to see their new striped buttoned overalls and black turtleneck. Frisk did a quick twirl to show me the entirety of their outfit. "They picked it out themselves!"

"Do you like it, Haise? I wanted to change outfits like you did too!" I did my best to smile back at Frisk's face of delight. It was hard for me to smile, when the very motherly monster stood in the same room.

"It… It looks good on you, Frisk." I replied before giving them another hug. As I rested my head on their shoulder to see sadness in Toriel's smile as she stared back at me.

"... Frisk, go play with the others while Haise and I take a walk downstairs." My heart dropped as I shuddered. I could tell Frisk noticed this from the way they pulled back away from the hug to look at me. Not wanting to worry them, I tried my best to bring back my fake smile, but Frisk was able to see past it this time.

"Haise?"

" **Come on Frisk, let's go play!** " Chara interrupted as they wrapped their arm around their shoulder. Clearly still unsettled, Frisk simply stared at Chara's smiling face wordlessly for a moment before sighing. " **Let's go, and uh, Haise.** " Turning to look at them, Chara patted me on shoulder. " **Meet up with us after you and mom are done talking, okay?** " It took a me moment for me to be able to respond to them, even though my response was simply just a nod. " **Good. Well, see you two later.** " With that said, Chara led Frisk out of the room, leaving only Toriel and I in the room together. We stood in silence as the time painfully passed in seemingly slower pace than usual. Finally, a sigh broke the tension between us as Toriel moved closer to me before kneeling down to face me.

"My child, I know that you're wanting to break the barrier, but… How do you expect to do that exactly?" I wanted to answer her with a response that would make the most sense, but the more and more I thought about it, the more and more I begun to realize how I really didn't have a plan; even if I did have a plan, it would probably go along the lines of wandering around until I found something. "And even more so, how do you expect your mother to stay home while her son is wandering around, lost, in the Underground?" Perhaps it was selfish of me, but I moved away from her sternly.

"I'm sorry but… But I refuse to accept my fate being _trapped_ here." I regretted saying that in such a bitter tone, but I meant every word of it. The two of us remained silently still as time passed, and eventually ending when Toriel stood back up to opened the door.

"I suppose you're set on it… Meet me in the basement."

* * *

 **Inside the living room, I felt my throat tighten as the sounds of heavy footsteps echoed through the hallway and down the stairs before being followed by much lighter and quicker steps. Sitting in the chair, the sounds of fire crackingly in the fireplace relaxed me the best they could as I looked down to see the three pairs of eyes staring back at me from my new siblings sitting down on the wooden floor below. "** Chara, why'd you stop? **" Asriel questioned with an eager smile spread across his face. Not wanting to worry him, I played it off with a head shake as I turned my focus toward the blazing embers that casted up into smoke.**

" **I'm sorry about that… Where was I?"**

"You were telling us about how Kaneki and Hide met again. **"** **Frisk replied.**

" **Right… So assumed that Hide's soul or whatever still existed somehow, and was able to give Kaneki's his soul while Kaneki gave his soul to me."**

"What about those white flowers? They're very pretty, but why did they bloom where Haise landed? **"** **Juuzou asked in a slightly excited voice, which made me laugh a little. Honestly, he reminded me of little kid, despite still being children. Juuzou quickly got up to place a white flower on my lap before sitting back down.**

" **Oh, this?" I mused aloud as I picked up the white floor to inspect it. Holding the unwilted flower, it still felt cool to the touch as I caught whiff of its sugary fragrance. "I honestly don't really know… I think it might represent life or some junk like that." Asriel raised an eyebrow at me after hearing that.**

"Or some junk? That's a bit rude to say, don't you think? **" I blinked at him, not knowing what he meant.**

" **I don't see how that's at all rude Asriel, care to explain?" Standing up, Asriel held out his hands, to which I placed the flower on top of his palms. Inhaling its sweet scent, Asriel's smile returned as he kept his focus on the flower.**

"I didn't mean to say that you were being rude, Chara, I just meant that it seems impolite to understate what this flower really is. **" It was my turn to give him a skeptical look.**

" **Please, do go on."**

"Gladly! **" Clearing his voice, Asriel prepared himself for one of his little speeches as I prepared myself by getting comfortable in the chair. "** First off, this is a white carnation flower, which is said to symbolize innocence. **"**

"Wow Asriel, how did you know that? **"** **Frisk asked in an awe stricken voice.**

"Oh, my dad and I used to garden a lot, and he used to tell me about all sorts of flowers; plus, we still have a book about yeah, I think that the flowers that bloomed with Haise might symbolize Kaneki's wish to be innocent and carefree, because let's face it, Kaneki wasn't very happy. **"**

" **I think you're looking too far deep into it." I replied as I glared at Asriel. "And also, just as a little side note, you don't know what Kaneki went through, so I'd appreciate if you refrained from speaking ill of him."**

"I understand how you feel Chara, but that brings me to my next point. **"** **He wasn't wrong, but still, he didn't know what Kaneki and I went through, and I hoped he never will. "** Haise is way more confident and expresses more joy than any of us have seen in Kaneki. **"**

" **... What are you implying?" He was starting to get me mad, and I could tell that Frisk was noticing this too from the way they kept looking at me rather than Asriel.**

"I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but since we're a family, I think we should keep an eye on Haise. **"**

* * *

Down in the corridors of the basement, I hadn't expected the hallways to be so long. Though I wasn't growing tired of running, after a while of running in the dark, I soon found myself walking slowly down through the pitch blackness of the hallway. "Toriel?!" I called out, but with no response. In fact, I didn't even hear an echo of any kind as I called out for her. It wasn't long until the sounds of my own footsteps were muffled from what felt like plants underneath me; however, I only realized this moments before slipping and falling down into a warm liquid puddle. It smelt metallic, and it didn't take me long to realize that what I had fallen into was most likely blood. I became concerned. "Hello?! Are you okay?!" I continued to call out in the dark as I carefully got up.

" **Mama… Mama's fine.** " I felt myself tense up as the nearby voice called back. What unnerved me about this voice was that it was very reminiscent of how Chara once spoke through Kaneki. I did, however, quickly recognize one of the voices to belonging to Toriel, but as the other voice, I couldn't exactly make out who it belonged to. Before I knew it, I found myself enveloped in a bright white light- forcing me to protect my eyes with my bloodied sleeves. After a moment, I slowly lowered my arms back to my side as I took a peek of the surrounding room that I was in.

Below me, I could see a bed of those white flowers from before surrounding me. Something was different though, something far different. Contradicting to what I had first thought before, it wasn't a puddle of blood that I had slipped in, but rather two heavy trails that traversed across the once pure white flowers, gray carpet, and all the way down to where a kitchen was. It soon became apparent to me that I was in some sort of apartment, but everything around me was monochrome, all except for the blood that spread over the table counters where I saw a tall woman turned away from me in front of what I was guessing to be a sink. As I cautiously made my way closer to her, I begun to notice that scattered across the kitchen tiles was an array of broken plates and glasses. " **Sweety… Be a dear and grab Mama a flower,** "

"I think you have me mistaken for someone else." I corrected as I continued to keep my distance away from the woman. She wore a black dress that looked a lot like Toriel's, which as soon I realized, made me worry even more. "Ma'am, are you hurt?"

" **Dear… Mama just got a little cut is all; so just please… Bring Mama a flower like a good child.** " Perhaps the woman, or whoever she actually was, suffered from some sort of mental illness of some kind, or was simply just confused. Getting closer to her, it was then that I noticed a heavy scent of alcohol emitting from her, which prompt me to take a closer looked down at shattered pieces of large glass across the floor. A heavy feeling of sympathy washed over me as I came to the conclusion that most of the glass, if not all, were once used to contain heavy liquor.

"Ma'am, please come sit down so I can wrapped your cuts." After saying that, she turnt off the faucet before continuing to stay glued to that one spot. As soon as I made one step toward her, she quickly threw a knife down toward me feet, to which I was able to move out of the way from, before slamming down her hands on the sides of the sink. Frozen to my place, I watched anxiously as she turned to face me.

" **Juuzou…** " Now facing me completely, she lifted up her arms before turning them to exhibit the numerous deep cuts slashed up and across her mangled pale skin. The wounds were deep, and from the looks of it, they had been self inflicted. " **You already bled mama dry, and no amount of stitches or apologies will ever fix that.** " Her black mouth suddenly shot open as they stared at me with wide empty stare. I stood frozen as she collapsed on the ground covered with thousands of pieces of shattered glass with a hard thud. The woman slowly pushed herself up as she reached a disgusting outstretched arm toward me, to which I quickly backed away from. I picked up the knife from the ground as I held it out in front me toward her. Seeing the knife caused her body to rapidly begin to convulse on the ground in an almost seizure state before going still. After waiting for what seemed like an hour, I took a step back away from the woman. Big mistake. The moment my foot landed behind me, a sickening cracking of bones filled the room for a split second before the woman suddenly stood a foot away from me to clamp down her bloodied hands on my shoulders. Now that she was in my face, I could see her facing melting into some kind of contortion as she screamed an ungodly wail at me. What happened next seemed more of like I had no control of my body. Without hesitation, I raised the knife and in one swift motion I jabbed the blade deep into her stomach.

" **Do… Do you really hate me that much...?** "

* * *

" **Asriel, calm down!" I shouted as I grab hold of Asriel's flailing wrist. "Frisk, come and help me!"**

"I can't! **" Frisk sobbed as they continued to hide their head inside their arms. If having to hide themselves away from seeing the red flower tossed in its own puddle of blood was already stressful enough for Frisk, then Asriel's screams did neither one of us any favors. "** Help! Haise! Mom! Juuzou! Somebody help! **"** **Of course, that little creep Juuzou wouldn't have been there when I needed him; he probably left to God-knows-where after leaving that damn flower on my lap. The blood that ran down Asriel's sleeves before he tossed the flower to the ground was now getting on my hands.**

" **Asriel! It's just blood, okay?! It's not going to hurt you!" Although that was able to calm him down, it wasn't long until his screams transformed into sobbing as rushed past me toward the kitchen. "Frisk, get up!"**

"No! **"** **Not wanting nor having the time to deal with Frisk's childish behavior, I grab hold of their arm before jerking them up to their feet. As soon as they stood up, they hid their head into my shoulder as they wrapped their arms tightly around me while they continued to sob. Frustrated, I made my way to the kitchen with Frisk huddled against me to see Asriel frantically scrubbing his hands and arms shirtless. Looking down to the ground near the right wall, I assumed that the first thing Asriel did was toss his soiled sweater aside before scrubbing away. However, in his panicked state, he wasn't doing a very good job. Making my way next to him, I grab hold of his hands with one hand and with the other I turned up the water's heat.**

" **Calm down, I'll help you, okay?" Gulping down, Asriel nodded meekly as he turned away from the sink. "That's good, just look at me, not the sink, okay?"**

"... O-Okay. **" He murmured. With Frisk on my back, it took me a bit to reach into the sink's cabinet to pull out a bottle of dish soap. Squirting a good amount on Asriel's blood matted fur, I begun to rub deep into the fur as I watched the blood diluting away into the drain of the sink.**

" **You can look now." Asriel reluctantly turned away from me to looked down at his arms, and let out a sigh of relief as he stepped away from the sink. "Frisk, let go."**

"... Frisk, you can hold onto me for now if you want. **" Asriel offered, to which thankfully Frisk accepted. With his arms still wet, Asriel outstretched his arms away from Frisk as they hugged Asriel. From what I could tell, I think Frisk was beginning to calm down, now that Asriel had stopped screaming and crying. Taking off my sweater so that all I had on top was my buttoned up black dress shirt, I begun to dry off Asriel's soaked arms. "** Thank you, Chara… I'm sorry I freaked out so badly. **"**

" **Don't mention it." I smiled back as I let out my own sigh of relief. Pressing myself against the wall, I slid down into a sitting position as I ran a hand down my face. "Okay… So I don't know what the heck just happened, but… I don't know…"**

"... Chara, maybe mom will know? **"**

" **Damn it…" I whispered under my breath as I stared up at the ceiling. With the white flower transforming into a striped carnation into a bleeding red spider lily transpiring, I had forgotten to check up on Haise and Toriel. I could feel myself becoming overwhelmed with dread as the sickening feeling in my stomach intensified. "I'll… I'll go get them, you two just stay here for now, okay?"**

"Okay, just be careful around that… that _evil_ flower, okay? **" I let out a fake chuckle as I got up to my feet.**

" **Duly noted."**

* * *

"I thought I heard something going down here." Juuzou mused amusingly. "Although, to be honest, I was expecting someone else Haise, but… Lucky for Mama that I came when I did, right?" He snickered. There on the floor, I cletched my teeth as I tried to cover the large slash through my chest that bled out a black mist into the air. Being how he was about five yards away from me, it would be understatement to say that he got a lucky hit on me. Leaning up, I caught a glimpse of Juuzou standing protectively in front of Toriel wielding a large cyan silhouette of a bulky scythe with the roman numerals 'XIII' etched into the blade. Toriel stood speechlessly behind him as she held her hands to her mouth. Gone were Juuzou's innocent pink eyes, and instead he glared at me through blacken eyes with glowing cyan irises focusing intently on me. Above those eyes, his hair had become white, and on his face and body, I could see red-crossed stitching slithering through his skin slowly like a snake.

"J-Juuzou?!" I managed to speak out as the pain begun to fade along with the bleeding mist. "What's the matter with you?! You could have killed me!" I shouted angrily at him, who in turn, seemed amused at this.

"That was what I was hoping for!" Although his laughter was meant to be jeering toward me, it wasn't without emotion however; in fact, something seemed off putting about him, despite his obvious features and giant weapon he held. In a split second, all joy from his face vanished as he stared deeper toward me. "It wasn't like you had any problem with killing Mama either... Monster."

"... Monster?" I found myself muttering aloud. I suddenly caught a glimmer of black mist evaporating on my left, and when I turned my head to look, there I saw was half of what looked like one of the three other red tendrils protruding from my lower back. Even to that point, I had no idea what was going on, and seeing such a sight of abnormality coming from me only made matters worse. "Juuzou... Get back."

"What… What did you just say?" Juuzou, although had no anger in his words, asked me in an almost demanding voice. Taking a step forward from Toriel, Juuzou made his way closer to me as he rested the scythe over his shoulder.

"Juuzou, calm down. There's no need for this, you're scaring Toriel." I tried to reason, but the next step he took closer toward me suggested that he although he heard me, he disregarded what I had just told me as he came to a complete halt. With him closer to me, I could make out a few tears running down his cheeks briefly before he wiped them using his forearm. "Extending out his right hand, a long red thread shot out from his open palm and wrapped itself around my leg. Juuzou brought his right arm in with a tug as the thread begun to drag me toward him. Seeing the scythe held up above him, ready to pierce through me, I watched as two remaining tendrils extended out: one tore away at the red thread while the other aimed toward Juuzou. Leaping back, Juuzou swung down his scythe- tearing through the tendrils with ease. Having rolled away from his attack at the last second, I got up to feet. "Juuzou! You don't have to be burden with that guilt longer!" Juuzou's eyes widened upon hearing that, and he gave me an genuine look of disgust as he glared hatefully at me. "I... I saw how you killed your mother."

"You… You really are sick!" Juuzou shouted at me, for what the first time sounded like anger. "How dare you!? You know nothing about me! You don't know what I saw! You don't know..." Swiping his right hand across in front of him, six cyan knives appeared floating in front of him, and when he swiped his right hand back over the knives, they all shot out toward me. I managed to duck in time to avoid the oncoming projectiles, but only to look up to see more knifes coming toward me. I knew that I couldn't dodge forever, and it was only a matter of time before I would get stabbed. "You don't know what it's like to lose your mother!" Juuzou cried out. I had finished hopping over a knife, and had just landed on the ground, so all I had time to see when I looked up was the scythe's blade coming down inches away from my face. I closed my eyes as I prepared myself for what was to come next, but nothing happened. Slowly peeking an eye open, I looked up to see Juuzou with a confused and frustrated look on his face. "... What?!" Raising the scythe, he tried slashing through my head again, but I watched as it fazed right through me once again. "Just… LET ME HAVE THIS!" He screeched as he furiously swung the scythe through me, with only the same results. Giving up on his large weapon, he tossed it aside before having two knifes appearing before him. Wielding both, he sliced repeatedly through my still body once more. At this point, he was just tiring himself out. That's when I figured it out: his cyan attacks couldn't hurt me if I stood still. The more and more he tired himself out, the more his features began to return to normal. It wasn't long until he fell to his knees with his black bangs hiding his tear-ridden rosey eyes as he banged his closed fist weakly against my pants in an act of desperation. Ironically, his small hands were the only attack that I had actually felt. "I… I don't wanna lose another Mama…" He sobbed quietly. "I… I have to protect her… Protect Asriel… Frisk… Chara... and even you..." Seeing him in this state was saddening… In fact, I would even go as far as saying it was **… Pathetic. This brat was ruining my slacks, and more importantly, he was in my way. Placing my foot on top of his forehead, I kicked him back on the ground where he belonged.**

 **"You think that I need YOUR protection?** **" I muttered. He let out a small whimper, to which annoyed me; however, all it took was me stabbing him with a tendril through his stomach to shut him up. Toriel, who had been shell shocked from what had just happened, snapped out of her trance as she held out her arm toward Juuzou. The moment she took a step closer to us, I aimed the last tendril I had left toward her direction, which caused her to stop dead in her tracks. "You." I spoke toward her as I begun to walk over toward her. "Open the door." I thought it was a simple demand, but I suppose she was too busy wanting to play hero to abide. Firey orbs appeared above her hands as she took a step closer to me.**

 **"** You… I don't know who you are, but I won't allow- **"**

" **-Took too long." To show her that I wasn't playing around, I sliced off a good portion of Juuzou's right leg, which caused him to scream in agony. Just as I had planned, this immediately discouraged Toriel from further trying to play hero. "Open it now, or I'll cut off his head." I couldn't lie, I didn't want to hurt him. Looking down, all that was left was just a few white particles pathetically flowing out along with his blood from his stump. I was glad to see that I was able to persuade Toriel into taking things into my perspective. In a matter of seconds, Toriel unlocked the large purple gate. "Thank you, mom... I don't want any of you to follow me, okay?... Take care of Juuzou." Taking one last step over Juuzou's chest, I shoved past the grieving mother as she rushed toward Juuzou's aid. As I assumed, the moment I took a step out of the gate, Toriel had quickly rushed to lock me out of the Ruins. In the midst of the dark room, a light shed from above to expose a long grey flower with an all too familiar disfigured face staring at me with absolute disappointment.**

 **"** YoU mOnStEr! hOw DaRe YoU bRiNg HaRm On UpOn ThAt SwEeT cHiLd?! **" WD Gaster asked in an appauld voice.**

 **"I don't get it, you said you wanted the children to stay here, right? I don't think that brat will be walking anywhere anytime soon." I chuckled. Despite it being funny, WD Gaster didn't seemed amused at all.**

 **"** YoU'rE fAr MoRe SaDiStIc ThAn ChArA eVeR wAs… KaNeKi… HiDe... I kNoW yOu'Re In ThErE... **" He sighed. "** hAiSe Is NoT yOuR's To CoNtRoL, AkAnEki! **" How cute.**

 **"Don't compare me to anyone... Especially Kaneki or Hide... Hey Gaster… Don't your children live in Snowdin? What are their names again?" I mused aloud, to see him staring back at me with a look of horror. "Stay out of my way, or else I'll have to pay them a visit... But first tell me this: What does that make you then? A coward? A failure as a father and a scientist? You're not a hero, so don't act like one." Taking a step over him, I looked down to see that a grey vine had tried pathetically to wrap itself around my ankle. "You're really DETERMINED, aren't you?"**

 **"**... Ah YeS... HiDe, YoU'rE _DETERMINED_ , jUsT aS cHaRa AnD fRiSk ArE. **"**

 **"... What are you doing?"**

 **"** cOmE nOw, KaNeKi! I kNoW yOu HaVe ThE _PATIENCE_ tO dIsCuSs ThIs OvEr, LeT's SaY… a NiCe CuP oF cOfFeE? **" I just realized, inside that cave, it was so cold. ** And honestly… _That sounded nice._

* * *

 **I didn't have time to get half way down the stairs before Toriel rushed past me. "Mom?" I asked aloud as I watched her frantically make her way to the living room. What served as the harbinger for me was the screams of both Asriel and Frisk that came from the living room. "Oh God…" I muttered. Following the bloody trail, I entered the living room to see Juuzou sprawled out on the table with his leg missing. In an almost trance like state, I stood froze the spot as I watched Toriel cauterizing the wound.**

"Asriel! Get the bandages from my room! **" What was once a gentle voice of a mother was replaced by the voice of a queen. Asriel, seeing how serious the situation was, wasted no time in sprinting past me down the hallway toward his mother's room. "** Frisk, deary, go to the kitchen and bring me a wet towel! **" Just as they were before, Frisk was far too disturb to abide by any orders.**

"Oh God… **"**

"Frisk! Do you want him to die?! Go! **" Reluctantly, Frisk sobbed as they sprinted toward the kitchen. Brushing past me again, Asriel came rushing in to hand his mother a white box. "** Good my child, now place it on the table. **" Of course, it wasn't long until Frisk returned, and from there, Toriel lead the two of them in saving Juuzou. They made have called for me to help, but at the point, I couldn't make out anything. All that went through my head, was the thought of how Haise could have done something like that. Kaneki never would have hurt anyone like that, and Hide didn't seem like the type either… Had I… Had I just presumed that Haise and Kaneki were the same still the same person? Reaching into my pocket, I unfolded the picture I had drew earlier… Although it wasn't the greatest picture of him, it was the only thing I had of him now.**

" **Mom… Did Haise do this?" I must have either been too focused on the picture I drew or lost track of time, because by the time I came back from my trance like state, I found myself sitting down on Toriel's chair underneath a blanket as the embers danced quietly in the fireplace.**

"... Chara. **" Looking down on the floor, it became apparent to me that while I was lost in my own thoughts, Asriel and Frisk had decided to lay blankets and pillows on the ground. Next to Asriel, Frisk snored lightly as they were wrapped in their blanket, which was most likely the reason Asriel was whispering. "** Mom's asleep with Juuzou in her room. **"**

" **Oh…"**

"... I don't get it. **"** **Asriel muttered as he leaned up from his covers. "** I thought… I thought Haise was supposed to be a good guy, I mean, he wanted to free us all from the barrier, right? **"**

" **... I don't know, Asriel. I… I…"**

"Chara… are you crying? **" Hiding my face in my hand, I turned to face away from Asriel as I wept silently.**

" _... Excuse me?_ **" A voice, an all too familiar voice politely called out. My eyes shot open as I leaned up off the armrest to search for who I had thought I'd never hear again.**

" **Kaneki?!" I shouted out. I knew it couldn't have been Haise, he never sounded as intimidated and shy as Kaneki was. "Kaneki?! Where are you?! It's me, Chara!"**

"Chara! What's gotten into you?! **" Asriel exclaimed in a hushed voice as he tried to cover my mouth.**

" **It's Kaneki! I-"**

" _Kaneki…? Do you mean me?_ **"**

" **Of course I mean you! Who else would I be talking to?"**

"Chara, you're going to wake up- **"**

"Kaneki? **" Frisk muttered as they woke up from their slumber.**

" **Yeah, I can… I can hear Kaneki in my head!" Although Frisk was tired, they seemed mystified from my statement. Meanwhile, Asriel appeared to be frowning, but I didn't care. It must had been from me being too loud. "Kaneki, I thought you were Haise now!"**

" _Haise? Who's that?_ **" At first, I thought he was joking, but… He seemed genuinely puzzled at the name.**

" **What do you mean? Haha, didn't you… You made up the name, don't you remember?"**

" _I appologize but, no, I don't remember ever doing such a thing._ **"**

"What's he saying? **" Frisk yawned as they climbed out of their covers to sit next to me on the chair. "** Asriel, isn't that great? Kaneki's back! **"**

"... Sure. **"**

" **Kaneki… Do you… Do you know who any of us are?"**

" _... Let me take a look._ **"**

"Oh my God… Chara, y-your left eye is grey! **"**

" _Who's that?_ **" I felt my heart beginning to sink as I stared blankly ahead at Asriel.**

" **... That's your brother, Asriel Dreeumurr." I whispered softly. Hearing his name, Asriel backed away a little as he continued to stare deep into my left eye with a concerned look.**

"Hi Kaneki! **"**

" _And who is that sitting next to us?_ **" Reaching my hand out, I ran my fingers through their hair as I patted them on the head.**

" **That's Frisk Dreemurr, they're your sibling as well."**

" _... I'm sorry, I don't remember anything…_ **" Kaneki admitted shyly, in an almost shameful tone. "** _I don't even know who I am, let alone who you or anyone else._ **"**

" **It's fine, you just… You know what, that's fine. Wait a moment." Hopping of the chair, I took the picture I drew from Asriel's hands before making my way to the entrance of the hallway to turn the lights on. "I want to introduce myself to you, Kaneki Dreemurr." I declared as I turned to face the mirror, to see that infact my left eye was grey, just like Kaneki's. "I'm Chara Dreemurr, I'm your sibling as well and um… I have an offer for you." I tried smiling in the reflection to show Kaneki that I only had the best intentions in mind, but it was then that I had realized what a mess I looked. My hair was frayed and my black collar was out of place.**

" _An offer?_ **"**

" **Yes, well, more like… more like a partnership between the two of us."**

" _A partnership? What kind of partnership, Miss. Dreemurr?_ **"**

" **Please, just call me Chara." I requested as I popped my collar back into place.**

" _Of course, Chara._ **" God, it felt good to hear his voice again.**

" **Okay, so… I would like to bring you back to life, as in, we need to find you a soul of your own." With my drawing in my hand, I look down to show Kaneki it. "I drew this earlier today… This is you, how you used to look like." I explained as I hovered my finger of my drawing's black hair and smiling face. "I can't draw that well, but if you can use a little imagination, then yes, this is how you used to look like…"**

" _Is that you next to me in the picture? Holding my hand?_ **"**

" **... I know, it's a dumb drawing-"**

" _I don't think that, Chara. I think it's lovely._ **" Kaneki said. Although I couldn't see him yet, I knew that he was smiling. "** _If this is what you're offering to me, a chance to be alive, then I'll gladly accept your offer. What do you want in return? I don't have anything, but… I'll give you anything in return, Chara._ **" I opened my mouth to talk, but found myself unable to speak. It wasn't that I didn't know what I wanted to say, it was just that I had a hard time saying it. "** _Chara? Are you… Oh no, did I… Did I make you cry? I'm sorry… I'll leave you alone, sorry I was-_ **"**

" **NO!" I screamed as I slammed my hand against the mirror. "Don't go! I can't… I can't lose you again, okay?!" In an instant, my legs gave a quick buckle as I felt myself fall to my knees. Holding the drawing deep into my chest, I sobbed. "Please, don't go…"**

" _... Chara._ **" Kaneki spoke softly to me. "** _I don't know who I was, or what kind of person I was before… But that doesn't matter, I'm here now, and if you want me to stay with you, then I won't go anywhere._ _So please…_ **" Feeling a hand on my shoulder, I wiped my nose and eyes on my black sleeve to look next to me to see him crouched down beside me. He wore a white collared dress shirt, much like the one I was wearing, with a pair of black slacks and dress shoes as he smiled at me. Rather than his having white hair, his hair was well kempt and black. I could feel my heart thumping fast against my chest as I found myself staring into those grey eyes of his. I wrapped my arms around his neck as I pulled him to embrace him. "** Don't cry anymore. **"**

" **Just hold me." I whispered as I rested my head on his shoulder. There, every worry I had seemed to fade away as I relaxed to the sound of Kaneki's breathing. There's no doubt about it, I would save Kaneki, just like how he saved me. But for now, all I wanted to do was fall asleep with him in my arms; everything and everyone would have to wait.**

* * *

 _We did it, we finally escaped the ruins. Also, I wanted to make this edit due to the sword coming out of no where, where as I should have just given him his Kagune. The reason why I make it a tendril rather than a Kagune is because without ghouls, there's no reason to call them that... yet. And to clarify some confusion, in the last paragraph, that Kaneki is Kaneki Dreemurr, not Haise Sasaki, Akaneki, or the first Kaneki: Kaneki Ken._


	8. Reborn

_I'll admit, chapter seven brought a lot of questions that weren't answered as well as I had hoped they would be. Hopefully this will answer some questions about which Kaneki is which, as well as an explanation and small insight on how Kaneki Dreemurr will be apart of this story. I love hearing from you guys, so please hit me up with either a review or PM if you have an idea of what I could write in future chapters to improve the story, or even if you'd love to see something or someone particular in the story; I'm a pretty dynamic writer._

* * *

 **I sat at the dining table next to Kaneki as we patiently awaited for Toriel. After a few minutes, I heard a door close from the hallway followed by a set of famiar heavy footsteps come closer to us. Entering the room, Toriel took a moment to light the fireplace. "** I think it's time that we shed some _light_ on the subject. **" Toriel joked as she gave a short-lived grin before momentarily before taking a seat next to us. For the longest time, she kept her focus on Kaneki, who shyly tried to avoid eye contact. "** So, we've apparently never met before, correct? **"**

"No ma'am, but… I'm… I'm Kaneki Dreemurr, I think I'm your son; or at least, that's what I've been told. **"**

"I don't recall ever calling you my son. **" Kaneki's eyes opened wide for a single moment before averting his gaze down to the floor. "** I… I shouldn't have said that. **" Toriel excused herself as she sighed. "** I'm truly sorry. **"**

"...I don't blame you if you hate me. **" Kaneki replied as he looked up slowly to look at Toriel. "** From what I heard, I've done a lot of bad things. **"**

" **No you haven't!" I insisted as I placed my hand on his shoulder. "You shouldn't feel guilty, you didn't do anything wrong!" Kaneki turned his head to look at me before giving me a small smile.**

"Thank you, Chara. **"**

"Kaneki… I…Please help me understand something. **"**

"Yes ma'am. **" He replied.**

"Are you… Are you the same Kaneki that first came here? **"**

"Chara and I were actually discussing this earlier. **" Kaneki chuckled to himself softly. "** You know, after I found out about him , I still don't think I'm the same person as he was. **"**

"But you look exactly like him! **" Toriel persisted. "** You even act like him! **"**

"That's what everyone's been telling me lately as well. **"** **Kaneki added. "** I appologize, but I really don't have a solid answer. All I know is that I'm Kaneki Dreemurr, and that's all that I am. **" I could tell that his answer really didn't satisfy Toriel's curiosity as much as she had hoped for, but it must have been evident to her that she wouldn't be getting any fulfilling answers from someone as new as him.**

"I suppose that'll have to do then…It's just… It's just… **" She muttered under her breath as she lowered her hand from her forehead to cover her face. "** It's been so hectic these past few days. **" She choked out before beginning to weep silently to herself. I reached out to place my hands over her other hand.**

" **Mom-" Before I could finish, the sound of a chair being pushed out and backed in over the wooden floor broke my concentration. I looked over to see Kaneki reaching his arms around to give Toriel a comforting hug. "Kaneki…" I whispered as I felt a smile spread across my face. As soon as he made contact with her, Toriel instantly lowered her hand to reveal eyes that reflected dread as she turned to face Kaneki. She let out a gasp as she shoved him away from her.**

"I can't! **" She yelped as she hastily got up from her chair- knocking it down in the process. Kaneki backed away from her as she glared at him through tear-ridden eyes. The three of us remain silent as we were frozen to our spots for what seemed like forever. "** I'm sorry… You can't stay here, Kaneki. **" In that moment, I felt my heart skip a beat.**

" **You… You can't be serious." I objected. "How are you going to blame him for something someone else did?!"**

"Don't raise your voice at me, child! **" Toriel shot back, which was unexpected coming from here; even she couldn't believe what had come out of her mouth. "**... You couldn't understand what I saw… You haven't seen what he's capable of. **"**

" **I told you! That's wasn't-" I stopped and turned my head to see his hand placed on my shoulder. Standing behind me, he gave me a cheerful smile.**

"It's okay, Chara. **"**

" **No, it's not! You shouldn't be the one to take the blame for something someone else did! It's not right!" Even seeing me as frustrated as I was, he continued to smile at me before turning to look at Toriel, who couldn't even return eye contact with him.**

"You have such a lovely family… I understand if you don't want me here, but I do have one request…May I say goodbye? **" I held back the urge to voice any displeasures I had about the situation, and despite Kaneki's politeness, Toriel still refused to look him in his grey eyes.**

"... Of course you can. **"**

"Thank you, mom. **" Kaneki said happily as he walked past Toriel to make his way down to the hallway to her room. As soon as that door closed, I stood up from my chair. "** Chara… **"**

" **What's wrong with you?!" I shouted. "Why are you making him leave?!"**

"Chara, he tried to attack me, and you saw what he did to Juuzou. **"**

" **No, that was Haise!"**

"Tell me then, child, who's to say that he won't end up like Haise? **"**

" **Me! I won't let that happen!"**

"And what about Haise? Did you just let that happen then? **" I felt my heart drop after hearing what she had said. It was evident as well that she regretted what just had slipped out from her mouth. "** … Forgive me. **"**

"Hey Kaneki! Look at me!" Asriel hollered at me in his cheerful voice. Standing before me, he presented to me the outfit he wore with a smile across his face. What he had on was a purple dress, much like the one Toriel wore, except it looked as though he had stitched a large and pompous white collar on it.

"You look really good in it." I complimented. "Did your mother help you make it?" Hearing that, Asriel looked at me as though I had said something awkward.

"Hey, she's your mom too. But no, I made this all by myself!" He declared proudly as he did a quick twirl.

"Well, you did an excellent job in stitching the collar to that dress."

"I made the entire thing from scratch, not just the collar!" For someone as young as Asriel, such a feat was indeed worthy of being impressive. "But thanks!"

"Yeah, Asriel's pretty talented." Frisk added. "Hey Kaneki, can I ask you a question?"

"Of course." I replied. "What's your question?"

"Are you really a good guy this time?" The question itself should have been easier to answer than I made it out to be. What really caught me off guard was how Frisk asked it in a way that they expected a simple yes or no from me, which wasn't unreasonable of them to. "Because Haise and Kaneki Ken seemed like good guys, but they did some pretty bad things. So I just wanted to ask you, so I can make sure."

"... I would like to be a good person, yes." I finally answered back after having thoughten about it.

"I believe you, but just remember to always show mercy Kaneki. That goes for you too, Juuzou." Following the direction of their pointed finger, I looked toward Juuzou. All he did was just stare back at Frisk with a tired expression.

"I did what I had to." Juuzou whispered back. "I protected Mama, and that's all that matters to me." I turned my attention back toward Frisk, who had looked as though they were about to say something, but decided not to. "Kaneki." Juuzou said in a weak voice as he placed his hand over my lap. Sitting on the chair, I looked down to see his pink eyes stare blankly at me with absence of any pain. "I don't know what's on the other side of the gate in the basement, but when you leave the Ruins, promise me… promise me that you won't rush into anything like I did." Juuzou warned as he then turned his attention down to his bandaged-wrapped missing leg. "With Kaneki Ken, he was so eager to redeem himself from his past sins, that he lost sight of what he had going for him; and just look at Haise, his own ambitions for the future of the Underground had overshadowed everything else, so much that it led to the point where he almost killed Mama and I." A small smile suddenly appeared on his face, but just as his eyes had portrayed, he expressed no real emotion. "Frisk was right, I just wanted to protect Mama, and that I didn't think of the consequences that would have came from following my own grudge." Just as soon as it came, his smile faded as he let out a small sigh. "What I'm saying is that you shouldn't be impulsive, as you might have guessed, it usually doesn't end well… Perhaps if we had all have exercised PATIENCE, then maybe things would have turned out better. No offense."

"None taken, Juuzou," I reassured as he picked up his hand from my lap to hold it. "Thank you for sharing with me your insight… But on a different note, I have one question for you."

"Shoot."

"Forgive me if I intrude or make you feel uncomfortable, but from what I heard about what had happened when you saved Toriel, how were you able to summon and use all those… those attacks? From what I was told, humans couldn't utilize magic."

"I was actually wondering that myself," Asriel admitted with a spark of interest in his voice, "I always thought only monsters here could use magic."

"I'm not from here. In fact, I actually recall being dead before I awoke here… How odd too, because I feel more dead that I ever had." Juuzou must have noticed of the uncomfortable faces that both Asriel and Frisk had as he tried his best to put on a small smile once more. "I didn't mean that in a bad way- far from it."

"How else would you mean it then?!" Asriel questioned with a horrified look. Juuzou turned his focus away from Asriel to stare off into the corner of the room for quite some time, but eventually returned eye contact with him.

"It's hard to explain, but… I feel at peace now; which was something that I never had before… It's like I was given a second chance or something… I got off topic, I'm sorry." Juuzou quickly apologized while retracting his hand away from me. "To answer your question, I really don't know why I was able to do the things I did, I never had that kind of power before. Maybe it has something to do with my soul or some junk, I don't know."

"Oh…" Asriel murmured quietly under his breath; the look of disappoint was quite apparent on his face, but just as I've come to quickly learn since my short time here, sometimes there's no real straight answer to things. Or perhaps the answers would eventually reveal themselves as time went on. Who knows, perhaps PATIENCE really is a virtue that children such as myself have a hard time understanding. I didn't really know what I would do once after I had said my goodbyes, and maybe that was for the best.

"... I have something to confess." I announced with a soft smile. "When I came here that night, I was sadden when I had discovered what a family was; and when Chara introduced me to all of you, I felt alone."

"... Kaneki-" Frisk whispered, but trailed off as I looked up at them to them to show my smile widening.

"But I didn't feel that for long though!" Even with being as shy as I was, I had no issue shedding tears of joy in front them. "Even when you all should have hated me for what I am, for the heartbreak that I should have brought, you were quick to accept me into this wonderful family of yours, and for that, I'm thankful… Which is why-" Suddenly, we all turned our attention toward the opened door where both Chara and Toriel as they stood. "... Which is why I'm so happy I got to meet you all before I leave."

"Leave?! You… You just got here." Asriel objected as he got up, but a stern look from his mother made all notions to argue void.

"Kaneki will be leaving with Chara to go on a little adventure... however, they're free to come and go as they please." Toriel announced before taking in a deep breath as she stared Asriel in the eyes with a look of reluctance. "... You're all free to come and leave." Upon hearing this, Asriel's eyes lit up as his jaw became agaped- perfectly portraying the overwhelming joy he must have felt from hearing those words.

"You mean… You mean we can leave the Ruins?... I can see dad?"

"ya know, you really give me the creeps. **"**

" **That's quite unfortunate that you feel that way."**

"... say, what was your name again? **"**

" **I've been called a lot things."**

"with a face like that, i can see why. **"**

" **Aren't you just the comedian?"**

"hey, all i have to keep me warm is this jacket, and my sense of humor. **"**

" **... How** _ **HUMERUS**_ **."**

"heh heh, i knew i had you pinned for someone who dabbles in the fine art of puns. **"**

" **... My name's Haise, by the way."**

"no, no; i meant your REAL name, weirdo. **"**

" **..."**

"hey, if you want to be called that, then so be it… although, just to clarify… despite how wicked you look, and from the messed up things you've told me, you're not interested in… well, pardon me, but you're not here to kill everyone just for the hell of it, right? **"**

" **I thought I've made it clear that I'm not interested in senseless killing."**

"you didn't have problems hurting and killing some of the monsters in the ruins, including that human- **"**

" **-Phantom; he's no longer a human. Juuzou died long before coming here."**

"hey buddy, that still makes him human, don't it? **"**

" **... Would angels be considered human?... Do you consider me a human?"**

"it doesn't matter what i think, pal; all that matters is that you're honest with yourself. **"**

" **..."**

"... so what was is it you wanted me to do again? **"**

" **You have a rather short memory, don't you?"**

"meh. **"**

" **... That's okay. Just try to remember to keep an eye out for the kid with black hair and grey eyes; he'll probably be following some other kid with brown hair and red eyes… Really hard to miss actually."**

"i guess i'd have to be a real BONEhead to miss them, huh? **"**

" **Hearing that made my funny bone hurt."**

"you're alright kid... so uh, what are their names? **"**

" **You'll have to ask them yourselves."**

"fair enough… and what about you? i'm not exactly someone who works to the bone for nothing. what will you be doing while i'm stuck babysitting? **"**

" **Seeing how Juuzou wasn't the only one who came with me, I think I have my work cut out for me."**

"eh, sounds like a lot of work. **"**

" **Everyone wants their happy ending, right?"**

"... i suppose you're right about that… it's just that, well… from how you described the shy kid, i'm not sure if he'll be able to do his part, so to speak. **"**

" **Here's the thing: I can't say for sure either."**

"so what are you basing him off of him then? **"**

" **He's a living blank canvas; what he'll learn here will be what shapes him into who he'll become. I know it's shot in the dark, but I trust he'll be in good hands."**

"... whatever, all i have to do is keep an eyehole out for them, right? **"**

" **That is correct."**

"... alright, ya got yourself a deal. **"**

" **Glad to hear that… Oh, and Sans?"**

"yea? **"**

" **... You're father still loves you and your brother very much."**

* * *

 _Okay I promise, promise, promise this time: the next chapter will be taking place after leaving the Ruins! Stay tuned as Kaneki travels from Pallet Town to complete his dream to become a Pokemon master. How will Chara-Senpai train him? And what about Frisk? Will they ever get the breakfast they deserve? And finally, will Asriel ever find the missing lego piece to complete his Star Wars set? Find out on the next episode of "This joke is terrible and I feel horrible for trying to be funny in the author's notes."_


End file.
